Metra tickets, 1990–1991
Every month, Chicago’s commuter rail system releases a new ticket design. We examine the typographic diversity found in this batch of early 1990s ephemera from the collection of Nick Rougeux.
January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans
February 1990 ft. Italia Bold
C82 is the website of Nicholas Rougeux, a Chicago-based designer and data artist. One of the many great things one can find on C82 is his collection of train tickets sold by Metra. Every month, the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area releases a new ticket design. In 2004, Nick started collecting. Over the years, and with the help from other ephemera enthusiasts as well as of Metra, the archive considerably grew in size. At the time of writing, it includes an impressive 1,395 tickets, spanning more than fifty years of commuter history.
This post highlights the monthly tickets from 1990 and 1991. In a recent blog update, Nick comments:
In the early 90s, ticket designs varied significantly with new typography and visual styles appearing each month. I can’t say these are some of my favorites but I recognize that this may have been in an effort to curb counterfeiting. However, I do enjoy some of the typography from the 1990s tickets. I owe a big thanks to fellow collector John for these and others.
Each of the tickets features a different typeface. Many of the chosen fonts stem from the libraries of ITC (Korinna, Quorum, Serif Gothic, Zapf Chancery, …) and Letraset (Caxton, Italia, Romic (Letraset), …). There are also classics that go back to the era of foundry type, like Beton, City, or Optima, and Monotype originals like Albertus and Plantin. The typographic smorgasbord is completed by designs as diverse as Moderne Schwabacher, a turn-of-the-century blackletter; Salut, an upright script first cast by Gebr. Klingspor in the 1930s; and Checkmate, a futuristic sans with chamfered corners, dreamt up at Schaedler in the 1970s – all of which were either used still as phototype, or in the form of early digitizations.
For the year 1990, all abbreviated month names are shown in vertically stretched letterforms. The source of the stacked numerals (“90”) was identified by Quinn as City Bold, see comments. The bitmap caps (“D/A”) are likely custom. While the spelled-out month names and the ticket numbers are similar to OCR-B, the specific font appears to be a proprietary design with some differences, probably from a specialized printing machine.
The Metra logo seen on the depicted train as well as on some of the tickets is Crillee. See also the dedicated post about it.
July 1990 ft. what appears to be a version of Filmotype Amber (or a similar face)
August 1990 ft. Salut
September 1990 ft. Moderne Schwabacher a.k.a. Chalet Text
October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed
November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed
January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold
February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra
March 1991 ft. ITC Serif Gothic Heavy with the pointed forms for M and A that were omitted from the digital version. “March 1991” uses ITC Korinna and Times New Roman.
April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin
May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus
June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold
July 1991 ft. Optima Bold
August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold
September 1991 ft. ITC Zapf Chancery Bold with the alternate swash caps
October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle
November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold
December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle
4 Comments on “Metra tickets, 1990–1991”
I believe the stacked 90 is also city bold
Didn’t occur to me, but yes, that could be it. Thanks!
Wow, imagine being served a monthly typographic surprise on your morning commute. What a treat!
Have some more:
Thanks for these additions, p-k! Those shiny metallic numerals for “89” are taken from Eightball. I also want to point out the non-standard Metra logo on the 1993 ticket – in bold italic Friz Quadrata instead of Crillee.