Countywide : Transit District Adopts New Logo, Color Scheme

Beginning July 1, Orange County Transit District buses, dial-a-ride vans and the Commuter Network ridesharing program will start sharing a new logo and color scheme that will be phased-in over several years, directors of the transit district decided Monday.

The district’s current logo resembles a squashed, orange beach ball with the blue letters “OCTD” painted over a wavy yellow stripe across the middle.

The new logo will be a rounder, pastel orange and sea-foam green emblem adorned with lines suggesting an ocean wave, and the letters “OCTD” straight across.

Developed by the Torrance-based Van Noy Design Group, which also produced the colors and graphics used for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the new look cost OCTD about $28,000, according to district spokeswoman Joanne Curran.

OCTD board member Roger R. Stanton, who had criticized both the purported need for new graphics and the designs offered, arrived late and missed Monday’s 4-0 vote approving the changes.

Curran said that 50 of OCTD’s vehicles will be repainted initially and that 75 new buses being purchased will come equipped with the new color scheme. Other vehicles among the district’s fleet of 440 buses and 135 dial-a-ride vans will be painted as part of routine maintenance or will be replaced as time and money permit.

Vehicles also will sport orange, sea foam green and magenta paint stripes.

The initial painting and changeover to new stationery is expected to cost about $30,000, Curran said, with no total cost estimate available for converting the district’s entire fleet and all 6,500 of its bus stop signs.

OCTD staff members argued for the changes, citing surveys that show some Orange County residents believe the agency is part of the trouble-plagued Southern California Rapid Transit District and citing a need to have a single emblem for all OCTD services, including Commuter Network.