Avanti West Coast

Avanti West Coast, the operator of the 400-mile route between London and Glasgow, partnered with ODA Branding to refresh their identity. ODA brought in Studio Drama to design a custom typeface—built to deliver clarity, pace, and distinction across the brand.

The Avanti Spark is a triangular icon representing the 400-mile route Avanti West Coast operates. We integrated its sharp geometry into the typeface’s letterforms, forging a clear visual link between the brand’s symbol and its typography.

Inspired by decades of British Rail history and rooted in the iconic grotesque classification, we revisited BR’s design heritage, studying the visual language and typographic principles that defined a generation of travel.

Avanti West Coast operates the Pendolino — a high-speed train engineered to tilt on curves, allowing it to maintain speed while delivering a smoother ride. We mirrored that precision and movement in the typeface, introducing an exaggerated 20.5° italic to reflect the train’s distinctive lean and sense of momentum.

Avanti West Coast Headline reflects this innovation with two styles: one upright, the other featuring an extreme tilt that captures the train’s distinctive lean. This tilted style injects movement and energy into the letterforms, reinforcing the brand’s focus on getting passengers quickly to their destinations.

From London to Llandudno, the typeface was extended into Welsh — supporting bilingual communication across the network. Custom ligatures and digraphs were added to preserve rhythm, clarity and character in both languages.

This was all brought to life through ODA’s branding work, seamlessly integrating the typeface into Avanti West Coast’s refreshed identity.