BFdesign Blog's TTC Brand Concept

A friend of mine has put together what I think is a pretty excellent and timely analysis of the current state of the TTC's branding. He is currently living in London, UK and has noticed how TFL's information is always slick and informative and how the TTC's is sadly almost always bad. This prompted him to work on a personal project of branding the TTC.

His full report is here (as a large PDF): TTC Brand Concept

Please feel free to comment on Urban Toronto (he'll be reading) or on his personal blog here.

My thoughts...

• While I do like the current logo, I'm not adverse to the way it has been simplified and is being used much in the same way that TFL uses the roundel everywhere. While it's not quite as pleasant as a roundel, I think it works.
  
• The "inspiration" bit was interesting as indeed the subway/RT map does closely resemble the shape of the logo. That's never dawned on me before! Speaking of the map though, I think this may be one area where BFesign's branding could really stand out. I would consider redesigning and even re-naming the lines on the map though. As we both know, Toronto's subway lines have cumbersome and long names. I like the Paris system of numbering the metro lines and alphabetizing the regional rail lines. Therefore, I'd make YUS - 1/Yellow, BD - 2/Green, Scarborough/Crosstown/Eglinton - 3/Blue and Sheppard - 4/Purple and have that in the legend for your map. I'd put the number of each line inside the crest as well.
  
• Totally agree about having a two-font system and totally agree to "TTC Subway" and "Gotham." Nothing else should be allowed anywhere on the TTC.
  
• Indeed, the new fleet provides an optimum opportunity to re-brand and therefore BFdesign may be able to get some discussion going on this.
  
• Temporary signage for construction, elevators, escalators is a huge problem on the TTC. BFdesign has captured that. It's often a problem for permanent signage too.
  
• The Metropass section is good, but may be moot with Presto likely being the only player within five years.
  
• Street signage is absolutely excellent. Nevermind just the TTC, but Toronto's streets themselves would instantly look better.
  
• I guess the elephant in the room is Metrolinx and what the future of transit in the GTA may be. There's a possibility of a Metrolinx take-over and there's also a good chance things will stay the same. Nonetheless, we may have a Metrolinx that looks for more common signage/symbols across the Greater Toronto area as is done in city's like Montreal. Perhaps having a page with some regional ideas may make sense too as so much of the discussion and reality of Toronto transportation is regional-based.

I'm good with pretty much everything in the report... other than the logo, which to me looks dumbed-down, flat, lifeless, utterly inelegant. It also looks like something that was applied by holding a cut-out stencil against a surface and then using a can of spray paint to do the rest. That screams "cheap" in all senses of the word. Sure it works nicely with the diagonals on the proposed website page, but that's it.

Designers are often tempted to do something bold, to shake things up by tossing out a sacrosanct item, in order to get a new plan noticed, but I say that change for change's sake is hollow. Change that improves the TTC will be appreciated, and consistent signage would improve things, but that logo is unwelcome and a non-starter.

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The moment I saw the logo, I didn't like it, but as I read through (well, "flipped through") the report it grew on me and I actually like it in the end.

The logo could use a lot of work, but anything is better than the terrible logo in current use. It should have been redesigned years ago.

I think the current logo shield and band looks great. The jumble of letters might look better in some other way but a simple TTC with no border or anything else isn't it. I agree that TTCs branding practises and font usage is inconsistent. Many of the ideas in the document are great but I am a little hung up on the proposed logo being a bit bland. I do like how MapArt stylizes the TTC logo for station naming and perhaps the TTC could do something similiar. At very least the TTC could state that the TTC font is the font for station and Line names and Helvetica is the font for everything else. They can't even stick to using a letterhead for temporary signs. What a mess. There is a station name on the south end of the southbound platform at King using the worst font imaginable.

I'm not sure what is bad about the base shield. Seems like it can be used as a base just as well as the simplified one above.

Maltag said:

The logo could use a lot of work, but anything is better than the terrible logo in current use. It should have been redesigned years ago.

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Yeah, just like Toronto City Hall is a terrible building which should have been rebuilt years ago.

EnviroTO said:

I do like how MapArt stylizes the TTC logo for station naming and perhaps the TTC could do something similar.

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... thanks! That was my handiwork.

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adma said:

Yeah, just like Toronto City Hall is a terrible building which should have been rebuilt years ago.

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What the hell kind of argument is this? Are you trolling me or something?

Maltag said:

What the hell kind of argument is this? Are you trolling me or something?

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The message being: lay off the TTC logo, you insensitive jerk.

Check out this page, which displays the logos of transit authorities from around the world: http://mic-ro.com/metro/metrologos.html

There are a few other duds in there but the TTC logo is the only one that is outright unreadable. I'm not saying we need a big M in a circle or anything, the shield is a fine design that's pretty unique. However in it's current form it's just a cluttered mess.

interchange42 said:

... thanks! That was my handiwork.

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Oh yeah I like that too!

I like the concept of this re-branding, but like many have stated above, I did not like the logo, and the website seems almost identical to what the TTC currently has. Apart form that though, it was very well laid out and has a lot of potential. I especially liked the China to Greece advertisement, and the improved transit stop signs.

Always good to hear feedback - and I know this is a hot topic!

I thought I'd respond with some thoughts to give a bit more of a background as to my ideas behind this project.

First off, this was a project I did for myself to include in my portfolio of design work. I'm a huge transit fan and have wanted to put my own design for the TTC together for quite some time. I've been inspired by how Transport for London (TFL), which operates all the buses, tube, bikes, boats etc in London, has created an outstanding standard of design across their system.

Branding for any organization is key to the publics perception in so many ways. When many people think of branding they think of a logo and that’s where it ends. But in fact, a company’s "brand" is everything from the logo to philosophy to print material, uniforms, website, advertising and even customer service. It encompasses a company’s ethos - tells their story on a multitude of levels.

Designers are often tempted to do something bold, to shake things up by tossing out a sacrosanct item, in order to get a new plan noticed, but I say that change for change's sake is hollow. Change that improves the TTC will be appreciated, and consistent signage would improve things, but that logo is unwelcome and a non-starter.

Click to expand...

Yes - there are designers out there that will throw the baby out with the bathwater without understanding the importance or historical relevance to a name / logo / brand. But I didn't want to lose the entire essence of the current logo. This isn't change for changes sake. It's a re-imagining, simplification of an overly complicated (in my view) logo. As Maltag pointed out when viewed against transit brands of the world, the TTC gets lost. From a design perspective, it does not reproduce well when scaled down and that is a problem.

I believe the logo needs to be cleaned up and integrated into the overall brand better rather than something to slap on a poster somewhere.

This isn't just for us either - tourists to Toronto need guidance when using a foreign transit system. While ours may not be as complicated as London's or New Yorks, it's still a big system which does not embrace those who do not know the system.

Anyone who's interested in reading more about the current state of signage should check out Joe Clark's website.

Thanks for your thoughts!

bgfrancey said:

Always good to hear feedback - and I know this is a hot topic!

I thought I'd respond with some thoughts to give a bit more of a background as to my ideas behind this project.

First off, this was a project I did for myself to include in my portfolio of design work. I'm a huge transit fan and have wanted to put my own design for the TTC together for quite some time. I've been inspired by how Transport for London (TFL), which operates all the buses, tube, bikes, boats etc in London, has created an outstanding standard of design across their system.

Branding for any organization is key to the publics perception in so many ways. When many people think of branding they think of a logo and that’s where it ends. But in fact, a company’s "brand" is everything from the logo to philosophy to print material, uniforms, website, advertising and even customer service. It encompasses a company’s ethos - tells their story on a multitude of levels.



Yes - there are designers out there that will throw the baby out with the bathwater without understanding the importance or historical relevance to a name / logo / brand. But I didn't want to lose the entire essence of the current logo. This isn't change for changes sake. It's a re-imagining, simplification of an overly complicated (in my view) logo. As Maltag pointed out when viewed against transit brands of the world, the TTC gets lost. From a design perspective, it does not reproduce well when scaled down and that is a problem.

I believe the logo needs to be cleaned up and integrated into the overall brand better rather than something to slap on a poster somewhere.

This isn't just for us either - tourists to Toronto need guidance when using a foreign transit system. While ours may not be as complicated as London's or New Yorks, it's still a big system which does not embrace those who do not know the system.

Anyone who's interested in reading more about the current state of signage should check out Joe Clark's website.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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I agree with absolutely everything you've written, both in your report and here. The TTC's branding has been lost in a myriad of fonts, times, technologies and eras. The logo is incredibly outdated and needs to be freshened up. I was surprised at how good your version of the TTC lozenge looked, considering I see it as an archaic 50s throwback which has no place in the modern times we live in. It would be nice to see the TTC take a full on approach of branding.. However, its perpetual situation of complacency and financial worries leads me to believe we will continue seeing a cluster$^%# of designs for the foreseeable future.