Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) rebrand
Redrawn logotype for the RTA, lines referencing the spatial logic of the letterforms
The Regional Transportation Authority is responsible for coordinating the Chicago region’s transit system, including overseeing financing and planning together with the three major transit operators: CTA, Metra, and Pace. Span was invited to refresh the brand identity for the organization in advance of announcing the RTA’s next strategic plan — a multi-year vision of how to achieve a safe, reliable, accessible public transportation that connects people to opportunity, advances equity, and combats climate change.
Span’s new brand reflects the agency’s focus on accountability, transparency, independence, and equity — four important goals identified during five separate workshops with stakeholder teams.
The logo is a solid monogram reflecting speed and strength with an ”overline” running through the characters like a train or bus pulling into the station. The typography is a customized version of Graphik by Commercial Type, a hard-working sans serif typeface selected for maximum recognition, with modified r, t, and a characters, to better align with the visual language of the logo itself. The color palette is focused, using combinations that are ADA-compliant up to level AA+. Illustrative transit paths as well as an icon suite add additional visual expressions to represent all aspects of life around transit.
The logotype’s overline informed a pattern language that references transit routes, these went on to be used across the collateral items. These lines and curves also guided Span’s design of a custom icon library that reflects all aspects of transit throughout the region.
Infographic styles were designed for accessibility and clarity.
Social media templates
Christian Schwartz of Commercial Type customized the sans-serif typeface Graphik for Span and the RTA to better align with the form of the RTA monogram.
1 Comment on “Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) rebrand”
This is refreshing updating logo…
So what happened to the original 1974–75 RTA Logo?