Brief No. 0037923 Jun 2025
A full rebrand for a regional railway, live in 12 weeks.
Rough budget€30k to €55k
First callWithin one day
Pulled by Femke, Northline★
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
A regional rail operator that wanted people to enjoy the wait. We rebuilt the identity around the departure board, redrew the signs on 64 stations and shipped an app that tells you the truth about delays, to the minute.
Client
Northline Rail, Utrecht
Scope
Identity, Wayfinding, Product
Timeline
12 weeks, autumn 2025
Platform 4, ten minutes before the last train
01
The brief
It started with a pull
The challenge
Northline ran on time 91% of the time, and nobody believed it. The signs were three generations of yellow, the app showed a delay only after the train had left, and the App Store rating sat at 2.1. Femke pulled the lever during a strike week, which she says was the most honest thing she did all year.
What we made
An identity built from the departure board: one yellow, one typeface and a dot that blinks when a train is coming. A sign family for 64 stations that you can read from a moving carriage, and an app whose first screen is the truth: your train, its platform and how late it really is.
4.8★
App Store rating, up from 2.1
64
Stations re-signed in one summer
31%
Fewer complaints about delays
1.2m
Journeys a week planned in the app
31%
Fewer complaints about delays
1.2m
Journeys a week planned in the app
02
The work
Identity, Wayfinding, Product
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
Here in four minutes.
Here in four minutes.
Here in four minutes.
Platform 2, Leiden
Signal
#FFD43B
Night
#121015
Concrete
#D9D4CB
Aa
Aa
Geist Mono, 400 and 600
Built for departure boards, and readable from a moving carriage
03
Twelve weeks
Tested on a real platform
Weeks 1 and 2
Rides and interviews
Sixty hours on trains and platforms, notebooks out, asking people what they actually look at.
Weeks 3 to 5
The board
The identity started on the departure board. Everything else took its yellow and its type from there.
Weeks 6 to 10
Signs and app
Full size signs on a test platform in Utrecht, and the app shipped to 2,000 commuters a week early.
Weeks 11 and 12
Roll out
Sixty four stations re-signed over one summer, mostly at night, without closing a single line.
“
“
“
For the first time people trust the board. That changed how they feel about the whole railway.
FW
Femke de Wit
Head of customer, Northline
04
Credits
Six people, twelve weeks
Creative direction
Mateo Alves
Wayfinding
Imani Brooks
Product design
Lin Zhao
Engineering
Jonas Weber
Strategy
Sofie Laan
Motion
Kwame Mensah
Next case study
03
/
Toys
·
2025
oddbird
oddbird
→
→
→
Got a
brief?
hello@leverage.studio
Leverage
Got a
brief?
hello@leverage.studio
Leverage
Got a
brief?
hello@leverage.studio
Leverage
PRO
Buy me
↗
Leverage
®
Menu
AaAa
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
A regional rail operator that wanted people to enjoy the wait. We rebuilt the identity around the departure board, redrew the signs on 64 stations and shipped an app that tells you the truth about delays, to the minute.
Client
Northline Rail, Utrecht
Scope
Identity, Wayfinding, Product
Timeline
12 weeks, autumn 2025
Platform 4, ten minutes before the last train
01
The brief
It started with a pull
Brief No. 0037923 Jun 2025
A full rebrand for a regional railway, live in 12 weeks.
Rough budget€30k to €55k
First callWithin one day
Pulled by Femke, Northline★
The challenge
Northline ran on time 91% of the time, and nobody believed it. The signs were three generations of yellow, the app showed a delay only after the train had left, and the App Store rating sat at 2.1. Femke pulled the lever during a strike week, which she says was the most honest thing she did all year.
What we made
An identity built from the departure board: one yellow, one typeface and a dot that blinks when a train is coming. A sign family for 64 stations that you can read from a moving carriage, and an app whose first screen is the truth: your train, its platform and how late it really is.
4.8★
App Store rating, up from 2.1
64
Stations re-signed in one summer
31%
Fewer complaints about delays
1.2m
Journeys a week planned in the app
02
The work
Identity, Wayfinding, Product
NORTHLINE
NORTHLINE
Here in four minutes.
Platform 2, Leiden
Signal
#FFD43B
Night
#121015
Concrete
#D9D4CB
Aa
Aa
Geist Mono, 400 and 600
Built for departure boards, and readable from a moving carriage
03
Twelve weeks
Tested on a real platform
Weeks 1 and 2
Rides and interviews
Sixty hours on trains and platforms, notebooks out, asking people what they actually look at.
Weeks 3 to 5
The board
The identity started on the departure board. Everything else took its yellow and its type from there.
Weeks 6 to 10
Signs and app
Full size signs on a test platform in Utrecht, and the app shipped to 2,000 commuters a week early.
Weeks 11 and 12
Roll out
Sixty four stations re-signed over one summer, mostly at night, without closing a single line.
“
For the first time people trust the board. That changed how they feel about the whole railway.
FW
Femke de Wit
Head of customer, Northline
04
Credits
Six people, twelve weeks
Creative direction
Mateo Alves
Wayfinding
Imani Brooks
Product design
Lin Zhao
Engineering
Jonas Weber
Strategy
Sofie Laan
Motion
Kwame Mensah
Next case study
03
/
Toys
·
2025
oddbird
oddbird
→
Got a
brief?
hello@leverage.studio
Leverage
PRO
Buy me
↗