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All Aboard Florida wins award for logo
Early on, AAF said its name was essentially a placeholder, that the service will be called something else. Some time last year trademarks were registered for “Bright” and “Bright Rail”. So I’m not sure this logo will be sticking around for much longer.
The headline is misleading. Reading the full biz journal article, http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2015/09/all-aboard-florida-wins-fast-companys-innovation.html
it seems that AAF won the award for the design of a product (i.e., the rail line) to meet an urban need (It won in the “City Solutions” category), not for its logo.
I’m old school when it comes to RY names. What’s a CSX? Or BNSF? Says nothing
This logo reminds me of the “INITECH” logo from the movie Office Space, same italicized block letters. Literally a caricature of corporate america circa 1999 - not exactly what I would call innovative. Also the name seems a little silly, as if everyone in florida was about to get on to some tourist train where the conductor hands a microphone to a five year old and tells him to yell “all aboard!”.
I’m with Mr. Jackson, meaningless acronyms say nothing about a brand. Particularly disappointing because our country has such a rich history of corporate identity in railroading.
I’ve verified Martin K Smith’s assertion, and as reported by multiple outlets, he’s mostly (possibly completely) right. The award is for the stations/inner city developments (and possibly the rail line, the wording is kind of vague), not for the logo. The article (and headline!) needs to be changed.
The 2015 Innovation By Design Awards Winners: City Solutions
These civic-scale innovations have the potential to impact millions of people.
Winner
All Aboard Florida
Creators: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Roger Duffy
Firm: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Client: Florida East Coast Industries Inc
Public-private partnerships have yielded a new wave of civic innovation, such as the popular Citi Bike program in New York. All Aboard Florida scales this strategy to a commuter rail system. The new 235-mile rail network is meant to connect South Florida to Central Florida, and its stations would feature shopping opportunities to revitalize the economies. SOM-designed rail stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach would serve as key nodes of the system and are envisioned as gateways to their respective cities—and architectural destinations in their own right.
BTW glad to see an increase in AAF coverage lately, though regular readers here could be forgiven for thinking there’s very little going on, but where’s the Texas Central and XpressWest coverage?