Maynard's brief was to design a unified family of products and systems, creating a line-wide identity for Crossrail, the new high frequency railway for London and the South East. The railway opened in 2022 and has made travelling into and across London easier and quicker.
We formed part of the multi-disciplinary C100 consortium for the Crossrail project in partnership with with Atkins, Grimshaw and GIA Equation. Our aim was to design a modern, minimal, elegant and functional transport environment that enhances the passenger experience. Each station was designed by a different architectural and engineering team.
Our work focused on the below ground tunnel environments where a common design language was created with a family of architectural components and wayfinding strategy. The scope of the component packages included cladding, platform edge screens, seating, lighting, signage and customer information systems.
To develop and test designs, a life-size ‘mock-up’ of a station platform was built to enable the design team and stakeholders to understand the scale and detail of the tunnel environment. The mock-up has been visited by up to 1,500 people – clients, contractors, and design teams – and has been used as an extremely successful communication tool.
We began the project with a comprehensive visual audit of existing networks and a review of global best practices in wayfinding. Using our findings, we collaborated closely with station architects, external stakeholders, and the client team to create a robust wayfinding strategy and a new, cohesive sign family.
This sign family was developed in line with existing standards and supported by detailed design guidelines, covering information hierarchies, type sizes, and layout principles for both 2D and 3D applications.
All station signs were designed to integrate seamlessly with the station architecture. Pilot schemes were implemented to test proposals in
real-world conditions and to establish budget forecasts for the full
wayfinding programme.