Continuing our long standing work with this global brand we have updated a range of corporate guides for the management teams in multiple countries.

Big Bus Tours

Global B2B communications and corporate literature design

Creating clear, engaging and consistent B2B communications for one of the world's leading sightseeing brands.

Our relationship with Big Bus Tours has developed over a number of years, supporting the business with the design and development of corporate communications, training materials and B2B literature used by teams across its international network.

For 2025, AD Creative was asked to update and develop a range of corporate guides for management teams operating across multiple countries.

For an international organisation, this type of communication has an important job to do. It needs to take detailed business information and transform it into something that is clear, engaging and easy to use, while remaining completely consistent with the global brand.

A global brand with a local audience

Big Bus Tours operates a highly recognisable international sightseeing brand, with its open-top bus experiences operating across major destinations around the world.

That international footprint creates an interesting communications challenge.

Materials need to feel unmistakably part of the same organisation wherever they are used, but they also need sufficient flexibility to work for teams operating in different cities, markets and commercial environments.

The challenge for us was therefore not simply to make the guides look good. It was to create a coherent B2B design system capable of organising substantial amounts of information while maintaining the personality and visual energy of the Big Bus brand.

Making complex information easier to understand

Corporate literature can quickly become dense.

One of the most important parts of our approach is therefore establishing a clear information hierarchy before considering decoration.

Headlines, introductions, key messages, supporting information, diagrams, photography and detailed content all need different levels of emphasis.

By developing a consistent page architecture and visual hierarchy, information can be broken into manageable sections and readers can quickly understand what is important.

This transforms a corporate document from something that simply contains information into an effective business communication tool.

Bringing the consumer brand into B2B communications

Big Bus is a highly visible consumer-facing travel brand. Internal and corporate communications need to feel part of that same brand world without simply reproducing consumer advertising.

Our approach was to take the established visual language and translate it into a more structured B2B environment.

Strong typography, confident use of colour, photography, graphic devices and carefully considered page layouts create documents that feel professional and authoritative while retaining the accessibility and energy associated with the wider brand.

The result is corporate communication that feels like Big Bus, rather than generic corporate literature with a logo added to it.

Designing a flexible communications system

With material being used by management teams in multiple countries, consistency is essential.

Rather than treating every page or document as an individual piece of artwork, we approached the project as a connected communications system.

Common typographic structures, grids, page furniture, graphic treatments and information hierarchies establish a visual framework that can accommodate different amounts and types of content.

This provides consistency from document to document while still allowing individual sections to have their own pace and emphasis.

Importantly, it also makes the design practical to extend.

As new information, markets or requirements emerge, additional material can be created without having to reinvent the visual approach each time.

B2B design that works internationally

Working for a global organisation means considering much more than the appearance of an individual page.

The design system has to remain effective when documents become longer, content changes, different teams contribute material or information needs to be adapted for different markets.

Our role is therefore as much about brand management and communication design as graphic design.

We look at how the complete document works: how someone navigates it, where attention needs to be focused, how key messages are distinguished from supporting information and how the brand remains consistent throughout.

This combination of creative thinking and disciplined design management is particularly important when communications are being distributed across an international organisation.

Supporting learning and development

Our work with Big Bus extends beyond the 2025 corporate guides.

AD Creative has previously produced literature and digital assets supporting the integration of a global training academy within the business. That programme was delivered in conjunction with STAR Commercial Academy and required a range of communications to help integrate the programme internationally. 

It demonstrates the wider role design can play inside an organisation.

Good B2B communications don't simply present information. They can help introduce new initiatives, explain processes, encourage engagement and provide employees and management teams with materials they actually want to use.

A long-standing creative relationship

Long-term client relationships provide an important advantage in projects of this nature.

Understanding the brand, its visual language and how previous communications have developed allows new work to move forward without losing continuity.

For Big Bus, that means we can evolve the communications rather than continually starting again.

It allows us to concentrate on improving clarity, usability and presentation while protecting the elements that make the brand recognisable.

And as the organisation changes, the design system can change with it.

Corporate communications without the corporate blandness

There is sometimes an assumption that B2B communications need to be conservative.

We don't believe they do.

The people reading corporate communications are the same people who experience sophisticated consumer brands every day. Internal audiences therefore respond to the same principles of good communication: clarity, relevance, personality and strong visual storytelling.

Our objective is to bring those principles into B2B design.

For Big Bus, that means combining the discipline required for detailed corporate information with the confidence and personality of an international travel brand.

The result is communication that is structured and professional without becoming anonymous.

One brand. Multiple markets. Consistent communication.

The Big Bus project demonstrates how a strong design system can help an international organisation communicate consistently across countries, teams and different types of content.

From corporate guides and management communications to training literature and digital assets, the aim remains the same: make information easier to understand, make the brand easier to recognise and make communications more effective.

For AD Creative, successful B2B design isn't simply about producing an attractive document.

It's about understanding the audience, organising information, translating the brand into the right environment and creating a communications system that can continue to work as the business develops.

Big Bus Tours — global B2B creative, corporate literature and communications design by AD Creative London.