A few weeks ago, Rolando Pujol of amNew York posted to twitter a photo of the MTA’s new garbage decals. I scoured the system looking for them but didn’t see them with my own two eyes until last night when I was waiting for a train at 96th St. Coincidentally, Michael Grynbaum wrote his Monday column on the new decal.
He talks of its design and origins:
The decal’s modern, stripped-down look is a stark departure from the agency’s previous approach to the school of informational trash can aesthetics. Close observers of the subway ecosystem will recall the last batch of garbage-related posters featured the rhyming instruction “Can It for a Greener Planet!” above a haiku-like poem: “Your City / Your Subway / Your Station / Your Litter.”
Now, poetry is out; clean, uncluttered design is in. The new poster takes advantage of the two-tiered structure of the average subway garbage can, or “trash receptacles,” as they are known in in-house M.T.A. parlance. The slogan, printed in large white-on-black letters on the top rim of the can, is easily spotted by straphangers; it is also the only three words on the entire poster, which depends on visuals rather than text.
To that end, the poster’s body has a simple pictogram of male and female stick figures depositing objects that look like coffee-cups into a trash bin. (The previous poster portrayed only a male stick figure.) The background is entirely black; the previous poster, with white and green colors, had a penchant for getting smudged and dirty.
The new stickers, designed in-house, first popped at Bowling Green and Whitehall, and 5000 garbage cans will sport the new look by the end of 2011. I do appreciate the design and how it mimics the overall look of the MTA’s rebranding campaign, but whether straphangers will make use of the garbage cans, new decal or not, remains to be seen.
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