Acknowledgments

A number of people and organisations have provided help, advice, stories and encouragement as this project has developed. This shows the place the corporate identity has in people’s memories across the industry and beyond, interest in the origins and development of the design, and a renewed interest in the work of Norman Wilson and his colleagues.

I’m very grateful to all who have contributed. Thank you

Richard Price

Particular thanks to colleagues, friends and family of Norman Wilson: Joan Wilson; Adrian Wilson; Stuart Wilson; Jean Horsfall; Antony Dawson of Dawson Design and former Norman Wilson associate; John Oldfield, former Norman Wilson associate; Benjamin Rule, son of former Wilson student and associate David Rule.

Main supporters and contributors:

Philip Kirk, director, The Bus Archive; Croda International plc; Martyn Cummins; Bernard Davis, former Commercial Manager, London Country; Sydney Eade, former driver, Eastern Counties; the Eastern Transport Collection Society; Ashiya Eastwood at the modernist; Wallace Henning of the British Rail Manual project; Nick Job of the Doublearrow project; Trevor Johnson, Design Director, Havas Lynx Group; Mike Lambden, archivist of the NBC collection, The Bus Archive; Michael Mccalla, former coachpainter, Northern General; Tony Whitehead, former corporate communications manager, National Bus Company; National Express Ltd; Jeremy Parrett, Manchester Metropolitan University, Special Collections; Tony Pattison, trustee, Sutton Community Transport and former public relations manager, National Bus Company; Eddy Rhead at the modernist; Ray Stenning, proprietor, Best Impressions and author of the first study of NBC’s corporate identity in 1979; David Stevenson, photographic curator, The Bus Archive; Robert Tarling.

Thanks to the following for their help with recollections and support for the project:

David Bemmer – Swansea Bus Museum; Derek Bradley, former Engineering and Operations Director, Lincolnshire; David Burdett, Eastern Counties; John Adam – Swansea Bus Museum; Ted Cook, former driver, Eastern Counties, Holt outstation; Liz Farrelly, senior lecturer, design and contemporary culture, University of Brighton; Dave Hales, former driver, Eastern Counties; Michael Hitchen; Martin Isles at Showbus; Timothy Moore, former driver, Eastern Counties; Paul Scurlock; Trevor Shore MBE, former driver, Hants and Dorset; Tony Tate – former driver, Eastern Counties, Alan Tebbit – former driver, Eastern National; Tudor Thomas, Revenue Development Officer, then Advertising and Promotions Manager, National Welsh, and Cardiff Transport Preservation Group; Adrian Tupper; Joanna Weddell, The Courtauld Institute of Art.

Thanks to Croda International and National Express for permission to use their graphics. “Double N” is the registered trademark of National Express Limited.

About Richard Price

Richard Price is an economist and a writer on design history, where his work explores the relationship between visual culture, architecture, infrastructure and place.

He has a particular interest in the graphics of transport and infrastructure, and the work of modernist graphic designer Norman Wilson. He leads the Bus Manual project to reconstruct and republish Wilson’s NBC Corporate Identity Manuals with detailed analysis of typography, colour systems and applications.

Richard’s Graffigwaith project is a strand of photographic essays and commentary, in which he documents modernist and brutalist architecture across Europe. His work includes pieces on modernist graphic design and architecture in Naples, Wales, London, Norwich and Paris, examining how architecture, landscape and infrastructure interact.

Richard was non-executive chair of Freightliners City Farm in Islington, London, and a non-executive board member of Etc Venues Ltd and Capital for Enterprise.

As a leading economist, Richard has held senior roles in climate and infrastructure policy and economic regulation, including serving as Chief Executive of the Office of Rail and Road and chair of the UK Regulators’ Network. He has held senior posts in central government, including at the Treasury, and as economics director at Defra, the Home Office, and the Department for International Trade. He currently advises on regulatory strategy and infrastructure investment at Fingleton.