TGV Logo Proposals

Series of logo proposals for the TGV's (Train à Grande Vitesse) - the French bullet train - expansion. 

This series is directly from the archives of Roger Tallon's agency, Design Programmes SA, which he donated to the French Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The document  was part of a tribute exhibition (Roger Tallon, Design in Motion) showing from September 2016 to January 2017

 In 1986, the French national railway company (SNCF) initiated a landmark aesthetic and functional transformation of its high-speed rail network. The company dismissed the initial proposals submitted by the original TGV designer, Jacques Cooper, for the second-generation trainsets and entrusted the complete redesign to legendary French industrial designer Roger Tallon.

Tallon applied a holistic approach to the redesign, treating the project as customer experience rather than just transportation design. He designed the entire train as a cohesive environment, from the livery to seats, bar-carriage, lights, etc. 

Beyond the physical traincars, Tallon was also commissioned to redesign the entire graphic charter of the SNCF network. He created custom signage and a pictographic system utilizing crisp, clean lines and typography (heavily drawing inspiration from classic Swiss design) to optimize wayfinding across stations and platforms. This approach was also applied to a new logo proposal that was later resimplified and launched in 1990.