Week 3: Re-imagining the Way We Travel

This week in IP I began to narrow down my subject matter. I am now working on the rebranding of the train, in the same way that I like to take old furniture and make it something fresh and new. To me, train culture is dying and it could use a fresh new look to get people to choose to take the train over other modes of transportation. Specifically, I would like to look at how to brand a train within Michigan by creating my own line that would travel from lower Michigan to northern Michigan. In order to get people to travel on the train, I would like to bring back some of the luxury and sophistication trains once had.

I spent all day thursday brainstorming names and styles for my company. It is important to me that the name and style evoke a feeling in the customer, making them want to take the train instead of a car up north. I am happy with my brainstorming process and I think that quickly jotting down every word and synonym of that word that came to mind helped me to discover what felt right for the name of my company.
Some brainstorming notes, displaying my thought process:

Inspiration from OnceWed, for the feeling I want my company to have (delicate, sophisticated and beautiful) : 

In addition to sketching this week, I also spent a great deal of time researching train culture around the world. I researched trains in Europe, Japan and the decline of the train culture in the United States. It was easy to see why trains in Europe and Japan are more successful than trains here. During the next week, I would like to check out some books from the library to further learn about these different trains and get a feel for what would be needed to make the train desirable.

Plan this week: Work on my logo. I would like to get a solid start to the identity of my company. After brainstorming on Thursday and looking at many different possibilities of names, I think I have chosen one that suits the idea of my train the best. I would like to start exploring different typographic styles for the name as well as for a tagline. For now, I am leaning towards my company name being: escape.

My IP work done this week: Research 3 hours, consulted with Janie and Seth 1/2 hour, consulted with Amanda 1/2 hour, Sketched 2 1/2 hours.