“the beginning is the most important part of the work.” – plato
all of us are really wanting a fresh new year! this video made in 2019 by tbwa/paris for the national society of french railways (sncf) captures what our mind’s eye was seeking: a celebration of new life, a feeling of hope and optimism. may all your plans bloom and blossom beyond your wildest dreams.
the video was a way for the sncf to give thanks to those “preserving the planet” by traveling by train. according to the sncf, trains give off 30 times less co2 than individual cars and 20 times less than planes. thus, the national railway body is positioning itself as a healthy alternative to other modes of transport.
to illustrate this sentiment, the successive blooming of flowers – a time lapse that covers 200 hours. to capture each one of the 50 varieties included, every flower was photographed once every five seconds, day and night, which accumulated in 14,000 images per flower.
in the film, every flower that blooms is accompanied by the wheezing bang of fireworks, to illustrate the celebratory nature of the campaign. the sncp aims to transition from diesel-powered rail to developing stations that are autonomously powered by 2035.
pininfarina is best known for designing ferraris and other italian cars. but it has also done objects and other vehicles. the company recently designed coca-cola’s high tech vending machine and has now done a new eurostar high-speed train. pininfarina has also designed high-speed trains for spanish railways and cars for swiss, danish and norwegian railroads as well as trams and light rail.
[ pininfarina expertise in the rail industry ] together with eurostar, pininfarina has created a new design for trains that focuses on a great travel experience, thus mixing the pininfarina style and outstanding functionality with a clear vision of future train travel. pininfarina has extensive experience in the rail industry, having designed the interiors and exteriors of italy’s high-speed trains.
the etr 500 was the first italian project for a high speed train, appeared in 1985 as the result of a joint project by ferrovie dello stato, breda and pininfarina. it was a demanding project, all the more so in view of the characteristics of the rail infrastructure of the day.
it was a challenge that pininfarina responded to with far-reaching stylistic and aerodynamic research, which led to the creation of a model with a high technological impact, that was extremely flexible in terms of operating requirements and could transport up to 700 people on each train.
along the years pininfarina has also designed high speed trains for spanish railways; rolling stock for swiss, danish and norwegian railways; automated light rail cars in lille, northern france; and trams for cities in italy, greece, sweden and turkey.