Design
The Making of the L.A. Metro 'M'
A story of deli counters, legal threats, and hidden meanings—in one letter.
Michael Lejeune, creative director for the Los Angeles Metro, still remembers when the bell tolled for the transit agency’s design jobs. Literally. There was a counter and a bell at the entrance to the graphics department, and when other Metro employees needed a hand with something creative, they’d stop by and make a request like so: Ding! I need a brochure!
“The first thing we did was blow up the bell and remove the counter,” says Lejeune, who arrived at Metro 14 years ago in September. “We’re not a deli.”