Hiawatha Line Poster
This poster was designed for Metro Transit to commemorate the groundbreaking for the Hiawatha Light-Rail Line construction.
Drawing inspiration from art-deco style transportation posters of the 1930's, I wanted to bring to mind the rich history of rail transportation in the Twin Cities, and suggest a rebirth of passenger rail.
A special challenge was that at the time the poster was designed we knew very little about what the yet-to-be-designed railcars would look like. So the simple, sleek, monochromatic railcar rendered in this style created a more conceptual announcement of the rail line's arrival, rather than putting the focus on an actual railcar. This proved to be a successful strategy, with lasting impact.
After the initial print-run of posters was distributed at the groundbreaking ceremony in early 2001, the image also was used to adorn t-shirts and mugs that were sold along with the posters at Metro Transit's stores and online. The posters proved so popular that several additional print-runs were required to meet demand. The image can be seen in an exhibit at the Minnesoty History Center Museum, as well as in homes around the Twin Cities and around the world.
The image seemed to take on a life of it's own, being adopted as the standard image accompanying articles about construction of the rail line by the two major Twin Cities newspapers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press - see samples. The image also became the logo of the Hiawatha Project Office – the office managing construction of the project.
In a local news column called Item World, the Minneapolis Star Tribune praised the poster, saying "Item World loves the retro logo developed for this week's groundbreaking of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line", and concluding "A logo for the rail line itself will be developed later. With any luck, it will be as good." See article
Minnesota Monthly magazine named the poster their "Favorite Graphic" of 2004 in their annual "MN Favorites" best-of issue, saying "If the Twin Cities' light rail line, which is opening next month, becomes fantastically successful, we'll always wonder how much credit is due the sleek Art Deco-style promotional poster." See article
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