Metro

The Tyne & Wear Metro opened in 1980, but in design terms it is firmly a creature of the late 1970s.

From the cadmium yellow and white Metro-Cammell cars to the lettering on the stations (a specially designed typeface by genius typographer Margaret Calvert), it was intended to be an integrated system.

The stations made extensive use of the Calvert typeface, often in giant sizes:

But Newcastle and the surrounding towns have a reputation for being a bit, well, hard, so the finishes used were very durable -- stove enamel in various colours was a favourite material:

It was used on the platforms, too, with integrated signage panels:

And the underground stations also used it as a facing material:

Here large panels are used in an overground station -- rather effectively, I think (and certainly more calming than hideous over-sized advertising panels, screaming at you to buy stuff you don't need):

Being of the late 1970s, the decorative scheme sometimes got a bit brash:

And you couldn't accuse the designers of subtlety when it came to inserting a Metro station into Newcastle's Grade 1 listed main railway station:

 

Today, the yellow and white trains have been reliveried in a range of snazzy colours which, I think, actually work rather well:

 

Those trains, incidentally, were built by Metro-Cammell but were based on the design of the West German Stadtbahnwagen B of 1973. How very cosmopolitan.

I still think there's something rather engaging about the original yellow and white livery, though.