Identity system · self-initiated

Meridian

A sleeper train operator running four night routes across Europe. Nobody sees the train in daylight, so the identity does not show a train. It shows the thing you actually look at from a bunk at two in the morning: a tunnel opening, a signal light, a vanishing point.

Client
Fictional, self-initiated
Sector
Rail, overnight services
Scope
Mark, image system, print, livery, screen
Method
After A. M. Cassandre
Built
CSS perspective, no images
01

The mark

Set in one weight, tracked to a third of an em, and always centred. The diamond is the only ornament and it marks the meridian itself, the line the company is named after.

Meridian
Line

Primary lockup, centred

Tracking
A third of an em at every size. The letterspacing is the mark, more than the letterforms are.
Weight
Extra light only. There is no bold. If it needs more presence, set it larger, never heavier.
Symmetry
Centred without exception. This system is built on an axis, and ranging left destroys it.
Diamond
One per surface, on the centre line, below the mark. Never used as a bullet or a decoration.
02

The image

One symmetrical form, seen head on, with a single vanishing point on the centre line. Cassandre drew the Nord Express this way. The brass never changes. The ground changes with the hour the train leaves.

Fixed
The axis, the vanishing point, and the brass. Twelve rays, seven rings, two rails.
Variable
The ground only. Each departure hour has one colour and every route inherits it.
Viewpoint
Low and central, so the form is read as approaching rather than passing.
Type
Sits below the image on a plinth. It never crosses the vanishing point.
03

Colour

Brass on a dark ground, always. The three grounds below are the only ones in the system, and a route keeps the ground of the hour it departs for the life of the timetable.

Brass#DDB65CEvery rule, ring and ray. The one constant across all routes.
Night#0A1626Departures between ten and one. The default ground.
Dusk#12352FDepartures before ten, when there is still light in the west.
Dawn#3B1B33Arrivals. Used on anything a passenger reads at the end of a journey.
Ember#B4502BSignal red. Delays, cancellations and nothing else.
Night · 22.00 to 01.00
Dusk · before 22.00
Dawn · on arrival

Three grounds, one brass

04

Typography

A geometric sans in extra light for everything the passenger sees on the platform, and a serif for the few places that carry more than a line: the timetable notes and the website.

Display
Josefin 200, .28 emVienna
Route
Josefin 300, .2 emParis to Vienna
Running text
Spectral 16 / 27The 22.40 leaves from platform six and does not stop again until the border. Breakfast is served from six, or from whenever the light comes, whichever of the two arrives first.
Platform data
Josefin 400, .3 em22.40 · Platform 6 · Cabin 14
Tracking
Nothing in the sans is set tighter than a fifth of an em. Deco lettering is spacing before it is form.
Case
The sans is uppercase everywhere. The serif is never uppercase.
Numerals
Times are tabular and set on the twenty-four hour clock, including on the website.
05

Route posters

Three of the four routes. Identical architecture, identical type, and the only difference is the ground, which is set by the hour the train leaves.

Meridian Line

Paris
Vienna

Departs 22.40

Meridian Line

Berlin
Rome

Departs 21.15

Meridian Line

Madrid
Lisbon

Arrives 06.20

Four sheet, 1016 × 1524 mm

06

Applications

The same portal shrinks onto a boarding card and stretches along a carriage. On the cabin plate it disappears entirely and only the brass rule survives, which is enough.

Meridian Paris – Vienna 22.40Platform 6Sleeper
Cabin 14 Berth A

Boarding card, 180 × 80 mm

Timetable · Winter

Berlin
Rome

StopArriveDepart
Berlin Hbfn/a21.15
Munich00.4200.58
Innsbruck03.1003.18
Verona06.0506.20
Rome Termini10.30n/a

Timetable spread

Meridian RoutesCabinsFaresBook

Winter timetable

Four nights,
four borders

Sleepers leave nightly from Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Vienna. Cabins for one, two or four, and a dining car that opens when the sun does.

Find a berth

Website

14
Sleeper

Cabin plate, brass on enamel

Meridian

Carriage livery

07

What breaks it

Three of these are things a marketing team will ask for in the first month. The fourth is what a printer will do if nobody tells them not to.

×
Do not move the axis Off centre, the form stops approaching and starts passing. The whole viewpoint collapses into an ordinary picture of a tunnel.
×
Do not cross the vanishing point Type over the centre fills the one place the eye is being pulled towards. The plinth exists so this never has to happen.
×
Do not invert to light Brass on ivory turns to mustard and the rays disappear. The system only works on a dark ground, which is the point of a night train.
× Meridian
Do not tighten the tracking Set solid and bold, the mark reads as a bank. The space between the letters is doing most of the work.