This isn’t real, but we wish it were. It’s one of those ideas we had fun playing around with, even though it ended up as just another behind-the-scenes project that didn’t see the light of day. Who knows, maybe someday it will. This was our take on ‘The Met, The Book.’

A couple of years ago, the studio had some rare downtime early in the year as everyone eased back into work. It was the perfect opportunity to pitch an Atollon studio project. The goal? To present a commercially viable publication that covered all the bases—research, design, merchandise, events, partners, marketing, costs, and process. It had to look and feel like it was ready to take off.

Driven by our nerdy love for graphic standard publications, we aimed to create something distinctly Australian, iconic to Victoria, and unmistakably Melbournian. If we were to run the gauntlet, It had to feature one of my all-time favourite logos. Nostalgic and cherished, the book is a homage to Melbourne, Transport, and Australian graphic design history. It was intended to include its full graphic application, exactly as it was from 1983 to 1987.

The Met branding was everywhere in the late 80s and early 90s—on trams, buses, trains, stations, conductors, and wayfinding signs. Everything was decked out in green and gold, with that perfect transit logo that captured the city’s spirit.

We weren’t exactly sure what content we’d be able to dig up. Did anyone keep all that cool old Met stuff? Could we track down and interview the original designer? Were there any old-style guides still floating around? The rabbit hole kept getting deeper and deeper. When would we find the time to answer all these questions? And more importantly, how would we fund all this research, not to mention carve out the time to design the real deal? Despite some attempts to answer these questions, we came to the realisation that this would be a very steep hypothetical mountain to climb

This is where we ended up, and it’s really just to share some inner workings of the studio we often don’t broadcast. Maybe someday it will be a real thing.