Maria do Rosário Frade x SNCF

Maria do Rosário Frade x SNCF

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Crossing the tracks with curious characters

What if you could map your year in motion – journey by journey? Hop on board, your guide to the past is here. At the end of 2025, French train network SNCF was seeking a cast of colourful characters to lead customers through their annual year-in-review, and Maria do Rosário Frade jumped aboard.

An annual rendezvous, ‘Retrainspective’ gives SNCF customers a way to reminisce on a year of travel. For the latest edition, Maria brought her playful graphic style to the gamified mobile experience – encouraging users to unlock their travel accomplishments with fun, warmth and celebration in each new scene.

Maria Frade

"The challenge was creating characters that felt fun and expressive without being human, animal or sci-fi."

Maria’s characters wear their unique personalities on their sleeves, creating a wonderful, strange sense of recognition. By balancing variation with cohesion, she leaves enough room for us to see hints of ourselves in her curious cohort.