CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY BRAND REFRESH
Project Brief
For my senior capstone, I wanted to produce a design for an industry that I could see myself working in post-graduation. Having lived in Chicago for most of my life, I have used the city’s public transit frequently, but noticed a decline in quality post-COVID. Although the city is working on boosting ridership back to pre-COVID levels, I noticed significant gaps in transit coverage, information design and little to no brand updates in decades.
I wanted to update Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)’s brand to value friendliness, reliability, and sustainability. I proposed to update their:
Research
I spent time examining some of the problems that Chicago residents face when using the CTA. I noticed that large portions of the Northwest, West, and Southwest sides (including my own neighborhood) lack railway coverage by CTA proper, leaving many residents dependent on either ride-sharing services or 40-minute bus rides to the closest train station.
Another major frustration with CTA’s “L” system has been the difficulty in transferring lines without needing to travel to the Loop. Chicago is overdue for a new rail line, with the most recent addition being the Pink Line in 2006. Using this information, I created the Navy Line, which would address the gaps in transit coverage and allow for ease-of-transfer to existing train lines plus adjacent Metra stations.
Railway Map
Train Booklet
Transit Cards
Exhibit
Takeaways
This project was bittersweet for me since it was my final major design project in university, and at the time of this project’s development, the Chicago Transit Authority was planning for massive service cuts due to the lack of allocated state funding. which would have left almost 20% of the Chicagoland area stranded without access to transit. Thankfully, those cuts did not go through, but it was a major reason for why I felt that this was a necessary project to create.
I am a strong advocate for funding public transportation across the United States. I benefitted so much from having reliable access to the buses and trains when I was in high school. Although visual design can’t directly fix budget cuts, I wanted to propose a vision to both Chicago and non-Chicago for what our city’s rail system could look like if the state of Illinois invested in the CTA.