From the Archives: Creating the Elizabeth Line with Julian Maynard

October 23, 2024

Every week this month, SEGD will feature a new video from our archives! This week, we are featuring “Creating the Elizabeth Line” from the 2022 SEGD Wayfinding + Placemaking event, which was presented virtually on August 4, 2022. Hear from Julian Maynard of Maynard Design Consultancy as he discusses the process behind this impactful project. You can also read more about the 2024 Global Design Award winning Elizabeth Line project here. 

London’s first accessible railway is the result of the biggest infrastructure project in a generation. Now known as the Elizabeth Line, Crossrail is the new high frequency, high capacity railway for London and the South East of England. Making traveling in and around London quicker and easier, the Elizabeth Line reduces crowding on the London transport network by carrying more than 1,500 passengers on each train during peak periods and around 200 million passengers each year.

A line-wide strategy demanded design components that would act as common threads to the passenger experience across all stations. Focused on the below ground tunnel environments, Maynard introduced a common design language across a family of architectural components. Their products included cladding, platform edge screens, seating, lighting, digital advertising, signage and customer information systems. As part of the common components team collaboration was central to curating one seamless, fluid architectural space. Each individual component was designed to feel integrated with the fabric of the architecture. They developed a sign family based on existing standards, and detailed design guidelines for all members of the sign family including information hierarchies, type sizes and layout principles. Read more about the Elizabeth Line at the link below.

About SEGD

We are designers of experiences connecting people to place. SEGD is a multidisciplinary community collectively shaping the future of experience design. We are a thought leader and an amplifier in the practice of experience design. Learn more at segd.org.