NYC Taxi Redesign
Posted: October 23, 2007 // Design + Transportation

Update: My designs are on the New York Times blog, City Room. Pretty rad!

New York Times had an article last Friday, discussing the newly redesigned taxi logo, and how a lot of people really aren’t liking it. While it does unify the cabs, the fonts and text are rather bulky and ugly, and don’t complement each other at all.
So they asked their readers, how would you redesign the logos?

Well I decided to throw my hat in, and do a couple of redesigns, as you can see above. The way I see it, if you’re in New York, you know you’re in New York. Most people are also aware that taxis are yellow, so having a big, bold text on the side of the cab reading ‘NYC TAXI’ seemed a bit silly to me. I decided to concentrate on making the cabs much more graphic, and possibly, something beautiful to look at.

The design at top has a wallpaper-type pattern covering the doors, so when the cab pulls up to you, you think it looks classy, not like a dirty cab. The bottom design is just a simple, bold, repeating stripe, that stretches along both doors. It’s not fancy, but why does it need to be? It reminds me of how cabs can be something you should watch out for!

For the fonts I used the Peter Saville designed (Marc Jacobs popularized) N.O. – Blue Monday ‘88, a font I’m quite fond of. I decided to include the ‘NYC TAXI’ logo near the front tire just in case someone didn’t know the vehicle was for some reason. But I made it rather small, because people do know what cabs are, not matter where you’re from. I also put the fare information near the back door, because that’s where most people look as they enter a cab.

Overall I like how my designs turned out. I think a fleet of different patterned taxis could be totally beautiful. What if they were decked out in plaid, tartan, houndstooth, polka dots! There’s a ton of fun options to explore.

Click for larger versions:
+ Design 1
+ Design 2

Bobby

5 Comments »

  1. Congrats! The floreal pattern is really nice.

    Comment by Margherita — October 24, 2007 #

  2. Yeah, congrats Bobby. I too really like the floral pattern, and the whole concept of patterned taxis…

    Comment by Benjamin — October 24, 2007 #

  3. i think you’re on to something here…

    Comment by Jeff — October 24, 2007 #

  4. kind of like the uhauls with the “interesting factoids” about animals, places, technologies, etc… i think this idea would really work. I’ve always thought those uhaul designs were fun and interesting, and you definitely keep your eyes open for them.

    why wouldn’t that work for taxis too? variable patterns like this would ultimately make taxis more interesting and identifiable.

    Comment by Jeff — October 24, 2007 #

  5. Thanks everyone!

    It’s funny, the people commenting on the actual article posted things like:

    “Why don’t we stop worrying about decorating these nasty fuel guzzling Fords and get rid of them for electric powered clean cars?

    Painting flowers on the hood does not make them GREEN ”

    and

    “That’s true, but those bright, pastel flower shapes will look wicked cool under the several feet of water that will be inundating Manhattan sometime soon. Like lilypads, only manmade!”

    While I’m all for cleaner running cars and helping the environment,I think it’s funny that people didn’t care about the redesign much. They’re more concerned with the doom and gloom of how our wold could turn out!
    If New York is going to be underwater, it should go out in style! haha…

    Comment by Bobby S. — October 24, 2007 #

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