RIDE: Detroit's Metropolitan Transit Authority

What is RIDE?

RIDE is a mult-transit brand comprised of Metro Detroit transportation systems, DDOT (Detroit Department of Transportation), SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation), the M-1 Rail, the MiTrain, and the People Mover. That’s the serious, white-collar explanation. We at RIDE want to have fun and our customers to have fun as well. When you want to plan a trip from Ann Arbor to Midtown Detroit, we want to make sure you recognize our vibrant, multi-colored transportation authority and feel comfortable enough to trust that we will get you to your destination safely, with a smile.

Strategy

Essence

Clean, customer-focused, safe, and secure public transit services

Promise

Providing Public transit services for everyone in Metro Detroit. With several different types of services to help you connect to a school or to wherever you need to be

Mark

What is the meaning of the mark? Round objects usually indicate softness and comfort compared to complex, sharp-edged objects. Think about how bottles, cans, and glasses fit in the curvature of your hand or how the tires on your car are round. They feel right and make it easier in a lot of cases. The symbol for RIDE is a custom, rounded mark intended to signify a general sense of happiness, friendliness, welcome, and overall positivity to not only RIDE’s customer base but the citizens of the Metro Detroit area. We really want our customers to be comfortable, have you noticed.

How did you come up with the mark?

Well, when you're looking for something happy and welcoming, what's better than a smile? Smiles can make someone's day better or make their day in general, so it was a particular gesture that we wanted to focus on when creating the branding for this integrated transit system. So, what about the smile?

Is that a smile?

The extended, curved descender of the "R," the genuine smile, resonates with the happiness and friendliness of the brand. Its placement, with the "I" sitting directly in the dip, representing a nose, and ending at the start of the "D," meaning a right eye, forms a smile and a happy face. It is genuinely open to the customer's interpretation of what they see in the mark or how they feel about it, but the effect gives off extremely positive vibes.

Applications: how is it applied?

The applications used in the Ride brand consist of: a mobile application, website, social media, maps, bus wraps, train wraps, stations/pick up locations, signage, motion graphics, clothing/uniforms, stickers and duffel bags.

The applications serve a variety of purposes ranging from advertisements for the brand to route planning and route identification. The wide variety of applications makes the brand more visible and identifiable in Detroit’s environment and media outlets.