With the operations of Great Northern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Southern now under the overall management of Govia, branded Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), we were delighted when they approached us to produce their wide range of network  diagrams.

Working closely with such an open-minded and co-operative client was a true pleasure and they were very willing to take on new ideas that departed, very successfully it seems, from some often unquestioned and inappropriate design ideals.

The brief included variants for all four brands, as well as individual ones, and all with the ability to display disabled access and staffing levels at the flick of a switch. This, coupled with colour-coded service pattern details, made for an interesting challenge. Users of Southern will be aware that it has complex train services.

We believe the geographical shape of any network coupled with its general service pattern features, must be reflected in the visuality of the way it is portrayed for ease of use. Usability was of paramount importance in the designs we created and sadly this is seldom the case with many such diagrams.

As well as the overall network, four individual network diagrams were designed and many others depicting individual services for website use. These are now being gradually rolled out in publicity and in carriages.