All round good idea for a transport-based company

I was hardly surprised to discover Jim Ramsay’s letter (DW 1 August) drawing the Stagecoach UK Bus logo into the whirlpool of comparisons.

We did indeed launch the new identity in question in late 2000, but, in fact, its first client presentation had been 18 months earlier and, like Paul Martin (DW 4 July) we were less than ecstatic when Consignia launched itself in a blaze of publicity shortly after our roll-out had begun.

Our brief from Stagecoach was evolution not revolution. Our job was not to reinvent the wheel, but conversely to develop an identity that reassessed and reorganised elements that staff and public alike recognised.

The ‘wheels within wheels’ marque was, of course, tested and found to be popular – this I believe is because it deliberately worked within the comfort zone of a universal visual vocabulary.

As is right and proper, the aim was to clarify an organisation to its audiences not create the merely brand new. Creativity and commerce should work in balance.

And my suggested comparative? Yin and Yang – launch date pre-3000BC.

Aird McKinstrie

Managing director

McKinstrie Wilde

aird@mckinstriewilde.co.uk