“The logo of the Thessaloniki Metro indicates the identity of the city and the super metro” declared today the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, responsible for infrastructure, Nikos Tachiaos, “responding” to the storm of schools and reactions on social media, after yesterday’s revelations.

“I didn’t have the slightest illusion that the Thessaloniki metro logo would be unanimously accepted. First of all, because this would be impossible to happen since everyone has their own aesthetic measure. Also, it has never happened” says N. Tachiaos in his statement to the Free Press.

And he continues:

“Let’s make a simple thought: What was the objective of the visual identity of the Thessaloniki metro? The design of a mark in which the central element is a letter, M. As simple as it sounds, it is as complex as it is. Not one twenty-fourth of a font is asked to be created, not even an ID in the blank. Not a sign that can be far from the very simple reminder that it marks a subway installation.

In the case of the identity of the Thessaloniki metro, the conception goes back to the history of the city, to its most glorious period as the Co-regent of Byzantium. The performance of “μ” in the manuscripts of the time was investigated and the adaptation of its lowercase writing to a more modern form, legible to the recipient of the marking and at the same time less chatty, was chosen.

An identity was thus created that also hints at the city’s past, but without being fixated on it, and avoids the simplistic refuge in recognizable landmarks, and has character, and demonstrates movement, and obeys the virtue of frugality. It is an image that indicates both the identity of a city, the same one that the project excavated from its bowels, but also a contemporary project of its own, its own super metro. It is, after all, a modern image that escapes the trivial” he concludes.