EurostarCopied

Eurostar and Thalys began merging in May 2022, and on 24 January 2023 Eurostar Group revealed the single brand that would carry both, with an ambition to carry 30 million passengers a year by 2030 and become the backbone of sustainable travel in Europe. The Eurostar name won because of its high awareness in Europe and beyond. All touchpoints, including 51 trains, were due to carry the new look from the end of 2023.

DesignStudio led the work. Creative director Julien Queyrane said the key was capturing the DNA of both brands, with their near 30-year heritage, through stakeholder workshops to decide what stayed and what evolved. The brand idea is Spark New. The star returns: dropped in the 2011 identity, it comes back as a symbol combining the Eurostar E with a six-pointed star, inspired, the company said, by l'Etoile du Nord, the original Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam service, and a tribute to the first Eurostar logo. The bespoke lowercase italic wordmark nods to the 1994 logo, based on a custom cut of La Pontaise by Or Type, crafted with art director Leo Field and type designer Luke Prowse. The metallic ribbon of the previous logo was removed; Queyrane said the old 3D identity could not be applied digitally.

The Spark is an animated graphic that rotates, extrudes and drops into locations, acting as a compass through the brand. The palette leads with a punchy blue and deep navy plus six secondary colours, including two reds inspired by Thalys. La Pontaise is paired with ABC Social. Seven illustrators from the group's five countries drew the destinations, photography is by John Adrian and sonic branding by Zelig Sound.

Creative Review placed the cleaner logo within the trend for stripped-back design suited to digital.

Railway Gazette filled in the operational detail. The identity would roll out from October across every customer touchpoint, including 25 Eurostar and 26 Thalys trainsets, with a palette of ten colours that kept warmer shades from the Thalys side. The chief executive said it would raise visibility and support an ambition to double passengers within a decade, while the company promised easier through journeys between the continent, London and German cities such as Cologne. Absorbing a well liked brand is always a loss for someone; keeping its warm colours is a decent consolation.

The return of the star is a rare case of a rebrand fixing a previous mistake. The italic wordmark has real elegance, and the system is rich enough to carry two merged cultures. Thalys fans lose their name, but keep their red.