Bus restoration - let's break some rules

Bus restoration - something I can honestly say I never would have thought I'd get involved with but has become so much fun. The biggest part is remembering that when these pieces were done there were no design rules. Everything was hand lettered, screen printed or drawn on with a soldering iron! I've found the fun is in finding the best modern equivalent then bastardising it until it is visually the most accurate.  

Me and Shug at Bridgeton

Functional design can be some of the most rewarding as you get to see your work in use, in three dimensions, interacting with the world. I imagine it's how product and packaging designers must feel (I saw a job working for Hasbro as a packaging designer. I soooooooooo wanted it. But it was in the states).

So, when my mate Shug, a bus enthusiast, asked me help with some artwork to restore a gear plate on one of his busses I was like, 'Meh. Sure. I'll see what I can do.'

Bus gear plate

Bus gear plate:
It was great fun. I felt like a proper restoration specialist but instead of brushes and exacto blades I was using pixels and cursors to recreate a piece of automotive history. And what turned out in the end (a decal laser printed onto vinyl that was laid over the original plate) looked incredible! Most of the numbers I had to redraw in illustrator by hand in order to get it to look as close to the original as possible. My only woe is the colour. But, I can thankfully blame the printer for that! lol

After and before

New plate in situ

Electric Scots advert:
Well, now you've got your vintage bus all gussied up and ready to go. But what better way to make a period piece more authentic than to have some advertising splashed on?

Well, when our train driver-bus enthusiast saw an example of a train advert for busses it all just meant to be. All we had to go on was this wee image from yester-year. Thankfully, there's not much to the ad besides text, but the 'Electric Scots' logo was a pivotal part of the ad. After he searched and scanned various things that had the logo on it, Shug stumbled across a library that could do a high-res scan for us.

c/o Science & Society Picture Library

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The fun bit then became recreating the original artwork (which was probably a screen print) as a vector image that could then be blown up to bus size.

It turned out fantastic! And fortunately we had the 'British Rail' font from another project which was/is the standard font for all British Rail adverts and signs. The final product looks authentic (to these eyes at least). Again, I had to break a lot of what I was taught as a trainee designer to make it look as accurate as possible.

Our only reference point

The final (remastered) product

Thankfully I can sleep at night. I helped bring back something that is a bit of history and was a huge challenge. And, as far as the rules go, my instructor all those years ago, Henk van Assen, did always tell us that rules are there as a foundation, something to fall back on. And only once you've learned them can break them intelligently.

Enjoy!
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