QR National is a soon to be listed public company that owns and operates Australia's largest rail freight network. In a country that is the world's largest exporter of coal, it's not surprising that QR National is also the world's largest transporter of the dirty rocks. In a big brown land, with big brown trains, from the state of the big pineapple, big mango, big bottle of rum and the big boofhead, a big new company is about to be created — with a smart new identity courtesy of Cornwall Design, Melbourne.

Train livery..

The Queensland government has decided to split the publicly owned railroads, selling the freight business by public tender, and retaining ownership of the passenger rail. The first step in this sale process was rebranding the previous QR - QR National as Queensland Rail and, err, QR NATIONAL. It's a big change. But not yet. It's almost a pre-emptive rebrand — before the sale goes ahead and the new owners get the keys to the trains, they're getting a new look — creating the rather ridiculous prospect of the company being rebranded, sold, and rebranded again, in the space of 12 months.

Simplified back into one color, the mark is quite strong, bold and graphic.

There's a common practise when selling your home to give it a "pre sale renovation". You move as much furniture out as possible to make the rooms seem bigger, a fresh, bright coat of paint and do the gardening. Then, on sale day, get some bread roasting in the oven to give the house that "homesy" feel and, lastly, fresh flowers in every room. This rebrand reeks of a pre-sale tart-up, but I must admit, the result is a rather pleasant looking tart.

The semantics of calling something QR, which locates it as based in the state of Queensland, but calling it National, certainly bugs me. On that point, the name is set in the ever dependable Gotham, but probably one of the better uses I've seen — one can't help but like that "Q." Not in black, not in white — but the nice, warm embrace of grey. Personally, I have a particular disdain for grey — it's the color of indecision — but in partnership with the orange, rusty ochre, red and yellow of the symbol — it's an acceptable choice.

Horizontal and stacked logos

On the symbol — hipsters will applaud the subtle integration of the shape de rigéur — triangles — and they've even snuck a couple diamonds in for good measure. A pair of arrows, signifying movement, and also evoking a stylised map of Australia — quite appropriate for a national rail freightc ompany located in Australia. Does this sound familiar? Whilst admittedly different marks, there is indeed a striking list of similarities between this and the Australia Unlimited mark we reviewed earlier. Warm grey sans serif type? Check. Orangey ochre? Check. Map of Australia? Nailed it, but let's make sure to remind everyone we're "on the move," okay? Get some arrows in there!

Moving forward. Or backward. Cool stripes.

It's this sort of orthodoxy that pervades top end corporate identity (particularly in Australia) that I find incredibly annoying — but somehow the precise, crafted nature of this mark, redeems it. In researching this piece I ventured into a dark, dark corner of the internet — forums, Picasa (never Flickr) and YouTube accounts of people who photograph trains — the dreaded Trainspotters. It's not a place I'd recommend for graphic designers — I'd imagine they'll get a particular thrill from the new train livery, which looks very smart indeed. But as a "fresh coat of paint," a "re-arranging the deck chairs," a "change-of-clothes," or however you describe this type of identity re-design, this isn't a bad one at all. As far as pre-sale tart-ups go, this looks to be the most expensive and wide ranging "For Sale" sign I've seen in quite a while.

All images are screen grabs taken from a corporate video here. Requests for images to the designers and QR National were ignored.

Thanks to Luke Martin for the tip.
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