It’s been nearly a year since Katrina published the Making Rail Work report. Since then it has taken on a life of it’s own, which meant it needed its own identity and brand as well. We’ve had a lot of fun making the brand work: our new fonts are Raleway and Wayfinder! Our colour palate is simple but each colour has a purpose to help with signposting.

This is the type of attention to detail that the team puts into everything we do, so it makes sense that the brand should hold to those standards as well. I’m incredibly proud of how it works with the website, and the Beyond The Tracks report is shaping up nicely as well.

Looking back, I have been doing graphic design before I even knew what graphic design was. I would spend hours on my Apple Macintosh Performa 580CD (just to be able to show my age…). I would make flyers for relatives, posters and desk calendars for friends, and signs to keep my sister out of my room. Fast forward a couple of years to December 2022 I have been tasked to keep the look and feel on track for Making Rail Work as the ’Brand Guardian’.

I have been very impressed with what the team at Making Rail work have done, and what they continue to do. Katrina has assembled an amazing team that I could not do what I do without. For me Vin is the grunt guy, he will get all the content together, setting it out just so, for me to come and make it pretty, it saves me so much time. I think one of the most impressive members must be Benjamin; his knowledge is enviable, and I have yet to find something that is too hard for him. Lastly Christian has become my right-hand man for solving things that were a bit more complicated.

Making a difference has always been a huge motivator for me and I am always aware of what I am doing and how it could make a difference in someone’s life. I have looked up to designers such as David Carson, but with him saying things like “Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does”, I never thought the difference I would make would be with design.

While I may not be the one on the team making the biggest difference, I am in the background making sure that everything that is seen by the public is instantly recognisable as MRW. This is important in a collaborative environment such as MRW, where we have an amazing team from many different backgrounds and many different places in the motu. It is important that what we say has the same visual language.