About Hong Kong MTR
A design system drawn from the stations of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway as they opened between 1979 and 1985. Each station had its own colour of glazed mosaic tile, so a rider who couldn't read the name could still tell Mong Kok's vermilion from Admiralty's blue.
The system keeps that logic: a white map ground, MTR red for the mark and active states, navy for navigation, line colours for large fields, and black enamel sign panels with white type. Chinese sits above English, set in a Song-style serif over a plain sans.
- Origin
- Hong Kong, from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island
- Era
- 1975–1985 (MTRC founded 1975, first section opened October 1979, Island line 1985)
- Key figures
- Roland Paoletti · Mass Transit Railway Corporation design and signage teams
- Movements
- Late-modernist transit design · Bilingual wayfinding · Colour-coded station identity
Hong Kong MTR design spec
Colors
Typography
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