VIA Rail Experience Redesign, concept

Full project: https://www.behance.net/portfolio/editor?project_id=246560855

As part of the RGD Project Based Mentorship program, a team of designers and I re-designed the VIA Rail travel experience. VIA Rail Canada is the country’s national passenger rail service, connecting people and communities from coast to coast. While the service is well established, it faces strong competition from other modes of travel—cars, buses, and airlines—and must find new ways to attract riders, particularly younger travellers and those who may not consider train travel their first choice.

I researched the existing VIA train designs, as well as read user comments and blogs on the VIA travel experience to gain an understanding of travellers’ pain points and what they would like to improve on. The group also researched rail travel of other countries – I focused on Taiwan and Japan while the team focused on Europe.

From there, we found that the main challenges with the existing VIA experience is that there is no homogeneous branding throughout aspects of the travel experience, from the station designs to the train itself. Each major VIA station has its own architectural design language, and as VIA shares some stations with other transit services, there is not many aspects of environmental branding within stations. The trains that VIA has in their fleet are also of different designs: the trains that serve the Canadian route is of a different design than the trains that serves the Ocean route. This can be attributed to the fact that the trains are bought in batches in during different times.

Theme: Forging Connection
Just like maple leaves, there’s multiple paths travellers take across Canada as their journey ebbs and flows. Whether VIA is connecting you to your loved ones, your business trip or even just your next snack from the dining car, every micro experience builds into the larger journey.
VIA isn’t just a transit service, but rather a collection of connections – from reuniting loved ones, to making sure you make your next connection. No matter the trip, VIA is dedicated to making your experience distinct, memorable and safe.

The team came up with the idea of using the slant in the VIA wordmark as part of the design language. The slant would serve as a connector, connecting travellers from one stop to the next.

Initial sketches by me using the connector as our main visual language.
The team found this approach to be too limiting as it would not work as well on walls due to the lack of graphical elements. We decided to try a different approach while still keeping the concept of the slant as a connector as a design language.

Ways to create pattern with the VIA wordmark was explored. This was to facilitate the creation of merchandise that were textile based.

Design Iterations

Screenshots of the design process the team went through. Feedback and comments were captured on Miro boards during critique sessions.

Initial sketch of the environmental graphics for the baggage claim area done by me before passing the file onto my teammate

Final Designs

These are deliverables that I worked on. I mainly focused on the design of merchandise and elements on board the train that is used to enhance the travel journey. I also participated in critique and feedback sessions with the other team members, commenting and directing their designs in order to create a fully cohesive project.