It’s not hard to see why Maree Cotter believes she has the best job in the world. As Customer Campaign & Design Manager for Auckland Transport, she and her multiskilled team, oversee an incredibly complex city-wide network of services to support both locals and visitors.
“Auckland is the only city in the world, that I could find, where ‘way finding’ across four travel modes – walking, cycling, the motorist and public transport – are looked after by one authority. Normally they are overseen by different authorities but here it’s all Auckland Transport and that provides opportunities you just would not get anywhere else.”
However, the fun parts of designing the visual aspects of the entire network comes with its own pressures. “Our remit is to encourage people to shift from their cars across to public transport, mainly to help keep the roads clear for users, such as tradies, courier drivers, etc, who can’t do their job any other way. To do this, we look at the psychology of how people find their way through the public transport system. It’s about making it as simple as possible because we know that, if people hesitate, you lose them. For example, one day a car user might decide to take the bus – if they can’t easily understand the system or find the help they need, they get frustrated and it can be six months to two years before they try again.”
“We have just rolled out a new network plan which includes designing the look and feel of the entire business. This covers everything from timetables, uniforms and signage, right through to the colour scheme for buses, trains and ferries, both internally and externally. It’s not really about making it look good – it’s about making the system as intuitive as possible to use. For example, we previously had 12 different bus operators, plus tourist buses, looking after different sectors of the city and each had its own coloured branding. For anyone new to the system, or for visitors to the city, it made it difficult to know which bus to get onto. In order to make it as seamless as possible for customers, we decided to make all the buses and trains look as similar as possible. It’s not just the paint colours – the internal fabrics, decals, iconography, etc. are also as similar as possible.”
Having settled on four colours to represent Auckland Transport (AT Ocean Blue, AT Silver, AT White and AT Yellow), the task was to accurately transfer those colours to Auckland’s public transport fleet, comprising 1367 buses, 193 double-decker buses and 72 train ‘sets’ (three carriages each). Maree went in search of support to get a clear understanding of paint colours and she found it in PPG.
“When I started investigating, I went to the bus operators and asked who they dealt with for paint – PPG was the name that came up most frequently. I was then able to go to Tony Thorpe (NZ Refinish Regional Sales Manager) to get an understanding of how we could spec these Auckland Transport brand colours so there would be no confusion when it came to each operator painting their vehicles. That expertise was exactly what I needed to guide me through that stage. Tony, along with Mark Brearley (PPG NZ Commercial Transport Manager), have been super helpful and without PPG’s support it would have been a lot more painful. Working with them, we were able to get the approved colours matched in PPG products and PPG even created a FleetSpec for Auckland Transport. They were then able to make it available to each of the organisations doing the re-livery work to make sure our colours are consistent right across the fleet. It’s probably quite an odd partnership because I don’t invoice PPG and PPG doesn’t invoice Auckland Transport but we work together to get the process done and it has worked incredibly well.”
Designing the branding livery was not just about appearance, says Maree, operational factors were also taken into consideration. For example, her team actually analysed the common parts of the bus which were damaged in an accident. By keeping the design simple in those locations, bus operators can have pre-painted panels ready to be fitted, thus ensuring the vehicle is more quickly back on the road and serving customers.
After painting the very first bus, Maree admits to being very nervous as she waited to see how the colours would work on the streets of Auckland. As it happens, all the colours have been very well received and the fresh branding is playing its part in helping the new network program to drive an uptake in public transport usage. It’s a credit to the entire team involved, says Maree.
“The people I work with are super, super passionate about this city. We live in it so we want it to be right!”