New logo: National Railway Museum

This was apparently a summer of rebrands for British museums. For example, the National Maritime Museum introduced a new identity from SomeOne a few weeks ago. Another British museum with a new look is the National Railway Museum in York, which this summer introduced a new visual identity, created by Thompson Brand Partners in Leeds.

Previous logo.

Thompson's solution is very simple, consisting of two parallel lines, with several meanings:

"The new logo has been designed to reflect the direction the museum is moving in. It is modern, simple, easy to read and dynamic with a clear indication of speed and momentum. It is based on the many angled slashes that can be found in the iconography and architecture of railway throughout history. It also makes subtle reference to rails." - blog post from Thompson

The agency has also created brand guidelines, but says that the implementation will be done in-house at the museum. Thompson have published a few images were the logo is overlayed on thematic images, showing the strength of a simple logo.

The new logo has been around at least since July 4, when it was published on the museum's Facebook profile.

Thompson Brand Partners (archive)
The Drum