Heathrow Express

An award-winning brand refresh.

Challenge

Heathrow Express is an internationally recognised and respected brand serving 16,000 passengers a day. 

In 2011, their identity was felt to need of a refresh, especially in light of the impending 2012 Olympic Games coming to London. 

Designhouse were briefed to update the identity whilst retaining the core components. A new identity was required to reflect the core elements of the brand personality: premium, confident and quality. 

Solution

We moderated research with both business and leisure passengers to gather feedback and insights before refining the identity and launching it to critical acclaim. We set out to deliver a developed brand strategy, identity with a supporting brand guidelines to transpose across print, web, event branding and animation to name a few. 

Result

Following a comprehensive audit of existing signage and customer touchpoints along the journey, we worked with Heathrow Express to create new signage, both traditional and digital, to enhance the travel experience and reinforce the new brand identity.

The customer journey was further enhanced with ticketing apps and branded real-time messaging as well as the train livery and uniform.

The rebrand helped affirm the company’s positioning as the most innovative, premium train brand in the UK, closely aligned with business and first class air travel.