Taxi firm rides with new image

London taxi firm Radio Taxis is investing 250 000 into a new image and has launched a logo for its satellite link Pathfinder as the overall identity’s first leg.

Bell Design is responsible for all design work. The consultancy won an unpaid creative pitch against Stocks Austin Sice and Tor Pettersen & Partners.

The design budget is 150 000 for the overall project. Radio Taxis quality development manager John Petrie describes the three-year contract as “prestigious” as the overall logo will be “splashed over 2000 cabs”.

“Our client base is corporate accounts and our identity needs to be more corporate; it’s a bit too big and clumsy at the moment,” Petrie adds.

“The Pathfinders logo will have to co-exist in some way with the overall identity,” says Bell designer Neil Stockwell, who based the device on “the sweep of a vapour trail from an aircraft, and the capital letter P”.

The Radio Taxis identity will be launched at the end of September, and the firm is considering changing its 40-year-old name.

Its current identity was designed by Chris Godfrey & Associates with input from a Radio Taxis director and “tinkering” from freelances, according to a Bell spokeswoman.