Magic Bus

The Los Angeles Metro has a remarkably successful identity program. Michael LeJeune administers the program with a team of talented designers. The system is clear, proprietary, and visually appealing. It has a logo that is confident and bold. I don’t want to ride a bus that has a cute logo, or has a cute name. I want my city to have a grown-up mass transit system, not something that would work for a pre-school.

Mass transit logos seem to be one of the last bastions of traditional, old school logo design. Hard geometry, flat forms, and dynamic typography communicate stability. I like a flexible logo system for many situations, but not on moving objects. I want to know the moving object is safe and well maintained. Which leads me to the Daihatsu Charade. Doesn’t charade mean an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance?