01.29.08

Buenos Aires Underground brand/wayfinding system

Environmental Graphics, Public Service

Buenos Aires is a city with a rich cultural and urban heritage, ten-million-inhabitants and semiotic noises that reach significant levels. Amid this indecipherable jungle, Buenos Aires, Argentina design firm, Diseno Shakespear recently gave new meaning to the Buenos Aires Underground as an urban brand (the studio first worked on the subway's sign and branding system in 1995). Signage is vital in transportation systems, not only in terms of ordering the flow of users but also as a significant element of identity and, when fluent reading might be difficult, its voice. The new visual expression of the "Subte" brand, the colloquial name for the subway, has been generated through an emphasis on the popular term. It preserves the old-day prestige and social identity beyond the name of the company, while the logo reinforces and emphasizes the notion of "line," at the entrance of every station. There are two levels of information in the main identity: the upper level, where the station’s name is cyclically repeated, and a subsidiary level, that connects the subway line to above-ground landmarks and related stations. Because of its sober, practical and robust character, sans-serif typography was chosen to express all messages in the network. The end result is a design that establishes a perpetual belt that ties together the network 2.2 meters above the ground.

Lorenzo Shakespear/Ronald Shakespear/Juan Shakespear, design directors; Joaquin Viramonte/Gonzalo Strasser/Juan Hitters, staff; Dise?o Shakespear (Buenos Aires, Argentina), design firm.

www.shakespearweb.comwww.subte.com