RIDE: Detroit’s Unified Transit Identity
A unified brand system designed to connect Metro Detroit’s fragmented transportation network through clearer wayfinding, friendlier visuals, and one recognizable rider experience.
The Challenge
One region. Too many disconnected transit experiences.
Metro Detroit’s transit network is made up of separate systems with different routes, visual languages, and rider expectations. RIDE reimagines DDOT, SMART, the People Mover, M-1 Rail, and MiTrain as one connected authority built around clarity, trust, and ease of movement.
Research Foundation
A system built from rider needs, not just aesthetics.
The project began with a review of service strengths, limitations, and rider pain points across Metro Detroit’s transit network. Rather than erase those differences, RIDE organizes them into one system riders can understand more quickly and trust more easily.
Essence
Clean, customer-focused, safe, and secure public transit services.
Promise
Public transit for everyone in Metro Detroit, with connected services that help riders get where they need to go.
The Mark
A transit identity built around a smile.
The custom RIDE mark uses rounded forms to make the system feel more open, comfortable, and approachable. The curved descender of the “R” creates a smile, giving the identity a sense of friendliness and optimism while staying bold enough for signage, digital tools, and transit applications.
Color and Type
One shared system, five distinct transit identities.
RIDE uses a bright, high-visibility palette to unify the network while helping riders identify each service quickly. ASAP was chosen for its rounded, readable forms and its friendly tone, supporting a transit system built around approachability and clarity.
System Architecture
One umbrella brand with mode-specific identities.
Each transit mode retains its own color and iconography while living within one consistent parent identity. This structure keeps the system recognizable as a whole while making each service easier to spot across maps, signs, and digital tools.
Wayfinding
A friendlier system starts with clearer navigation.
The wayfinding system translates the brand into physical space through simple hierarchy, bold color coding, and easy-to-scan information blocks. Transit centers, route poles, and station signs were designed to reduce friction and help riders move through the network with more confidence.
Transit in Motion
The identity moves through the city at full scale
The transit wraps extend the RIDE system into one of its most visible public-facing forms. Bold color, oversized branding, and clear mode distinction turn each vehicle into a moving part of the larger network while making the system easier to recognize at a glance.
Digital Access
The system continues from street to screen.
RIDE extends its hierarchy, color logic, and visual language into trip planning, fare access, and route information. Across web and mobile touchpoints, the goal was to make the digital experience feel as clear, connected, and approachable as the physical one.
Brand Extensions
A transit identity designed to live beyond infrastructure.
RIDE extends its hierarchy, color logic, and visual language into trip planning, fare access, and route information. Across web and mobile touchpoints, the goal was to make t
RIDE was built to move through the city, but also beyond it. Promotional pieces and branded materials extend the system into everyday life, building familiarity while showing how the identity can stay playful, visible, and consistent across a wider range of touchpoints.
Brand Style Guide
The system was designed to scale with clarity.
The RIDE style guide brings the identity together in one place, documenting the mark, color system, typography, symbols, and application logic across the broader network. More than a reference document, it reflects the editorial structure behind the project and shows how the system was built to stay consistent across future touchpoints.
Research Book
A system developed through research, writing, and editorial structure.
The RIDE research book documents the thinking behind the identity, from transit analysis and rider needs to visual development and application strategy. As both a process document and a designed artifact, it reflects the project’s editorial foundation as much as the system itself.
View the Research Book PDF
RIDE reframes Metro Detroit transit as one connected experience rather than a collection of separate systems. By combining warmth, visibility, and structure, the identity makes public transportation feel easier to understand, easier to trust, and more inviting to use.
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