Eye Magazine's Type Tuesday

Tuesday 22 November 2016 at St Bride Library, 7-9.30pm

Eye presents another evening in the magazine's series of informal quarterly events about graphic design and visual culture.

Trains and fonts and double arrows

Design and identity for railways

With Paul Barnes, Catherine Dixon, David Lawrence, Theo Inglis, Wallace Henning, Martha Fleming & guests.

Trains, railways and transportation have long been a source of fascination for graphic designers, illustrators and artists, and DRU’s mid-1960s redesign of British Rail has a particular resonance for enthusiasts of all persuasions. Both David Lawrence’s forthcoming British Rail Designed 1948-97 (Ian Allan Publishing, designed by Theo Inglis) and Wallace Henning’s Kickstarter-backed British Rail Corporate Identity Manual revel in both the broad scope and the minutiae of railway design; we will hear the stories behind both publications. (Eye editor John L. Walters interviewed ‘double arrow’ designer Gerry Barney – ex-DRU, Wolff Olins & Sedley Place – for the republished Manual. Commercial Type’s Paul Barnes will talk about printers’ trains and nameplates, and the whole event will be seamlessly MC’d by train enthusiast, typographer and lecturer Dr Catherine Dixon (@ThinkingType).

STOP PRESS: Martha Fleming (V&A) will speak about Allan Fleming’s design for Canadian National Railway, including his famous ‘CN’ logo, showing images from her father's archive.