Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Thursday, March 05, 2026

Posters as an element of marketing transit stations and neighborhoods

I can't say I've thought about this much.  I do think about it terms of parks, and using National Park Service style posters with a design language created in the 1930s.

Original poster design, 1938.

Modern version.  Poster not produced by the National Park Service.



Now that I think about it, they are reminiscent of the transit marketing posters produced by railroads, and for transit specifically, the London Underground ("Birth of the London Underground Posters," Art Institute of Chicago, "Frank Pick: the forgotten genius of the London Underground," GalleryTelegraph, "The Hidden Women Behind London’s Beloved Modernist Transit Posters," Bloomberg), and Chicago Transit.

London Underground Poster.

Modern CTA poster promoting rehabilitation of Wilson Station.  
Making these kinds of posters could be a way to engender goodwill for transit infrastructure projects.

Non CTA poster, done in the 1930s National Park style.
Promoting the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
This series of posters by the Chicago Neighborhoods Project
 is comparable to those by u/Coup-de-Cous for Los Angeles.

Art deco style railroad poster.

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