CSKA Metro train

Overview

Overview
Process

Task: to design a Metro train to celebrate the anniversary of a sports club.

CSKA sports club celebrates its 95th anniversary in 2018. To mark the occasion, a Moscow Metro train in the club’s red and blue colors was designed at Art. Lebedev Studio. The train is endlessly interesting to look at, examine and photograph.

For example, the cars look simply red and blue from a distance.

But once you get closer you see that there is a knitted pattern that goes across all cars making the entire train look like a huge fan scarf.

And if you look even closer, you realize that each loop is made in the shape of CSKA’s shield! More than a million of them on the entire train.

The design makes use of lots of CSKA’s attributes, symbols and memes. Three of the cars have horses, mascots of the soccer, basketball and hockey clubs.

To mark the solemn event, the text 95 Years of Golden Victories runs through the train.

The cars are even cooler inside. Each of them has its own theme and visual language.

Soccer car

The car is completely dedicated to the soccer club. Photos of famous players, awards and fan chants cover the walls.

The red and blue pattern inside the car accurately repeats the layout of seats at CSKA’s home arena. Regular Metro riders simply see a beautiful motif while true fans understand and delight in the joke.

Basketball car

Here we made an emphasis on the basketball club’s modern history and visually conveyed the atmosphere of the games. Star players, flying balls, lights, cheerleaders and fans. The perimeter of the car is surrounded by basketball players powerful like Atlases.

—Wow, does he really look like an Atlas on purpose?
—Yes

Hockey car

The most serious and solemn is the hockey car. Here we remembered the legendary players of the Soviet period, the stars of today, great victories and trophies.

The main theme of the car is continuity: players are arranged in chronological order which means Tretyak and Tarasov are followed by winners of 2018 Olympic Games.

Young Army car

Young Army is a patriotic youth organization. Here we needed to show that this is a modern organization where people come not for flag-waving patriotism but to find a company of like-minded people as well as travel, adventures, sport and other activities.

The car is pronouncedly oriented on kids: it has smiley faces, stickers and quotes from teenager conversations. The illustrations are especially cool, each one begs to be posted on Instagram.

CSKA cars

The two first and two last cars of the trains are dedicated to CSKA’s history. A short, almost reference-like format sums up the main events in the club’s 95-year lifetime. All facts and dates are arranged chronologically so a walk through the car slightly resembles reading a sports encyclopedia.