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"The Cincinnati Streetcar is ready to be branded. Cincinnati Metro, which will operate the system once it is built, said the serious business of deciding how to market and identify the system has started.The Streetcar is still two years away from being operational, but the search for a new logo has begun, officials said.Watch this story\"Metro is going to be looking at what the branding should be,\u201D spokesperson for the transit company Sallie Hilvers said.After all the controversy over whether the loop would be constructed in the first place, some people, like Tim Mara, question if the expense for branding is worth it.Mara is an attorney who lives in Over-the-Rhine, walks the city streets regularly and opposes the Streetcar as a wasteful enterprise.\"If it's so wonderful that people want to ride it they don't need to brand it,\u201D Mara said. \u201CSo they've oversold it, so to speak.\"Streetcar supporters have labeled that point of view as nonsense.Supporters said they are pleased with the progress on the maintenance facility at Race and Henry streets in Over-the-Rhine.Looking at renderings of the design, Hilvers said, \"From the outside, you may not know what it is and that's because we need the logos for the signage to put on the building.\"Metro wanted a fresh, more visible, younger and environmentally greener look nine years ago for its buses. It paid LPK $20,000 for a redesigned logo currently in use.\"This is really the very first step of the marketing and community education work that Metro has been asked to assume by the city of Cincinnati,\u201D Hilvers said. \"So this is a basic building block.\"The future building blocks will involve educating disabled riders, bike riders and those who speak no or very little English about how to access the streetcar system.Metro will also help develop a policy on individual fares, ticketing and transfers.Metro has issued a request for proposals that are due in 10 days for more than 30 branding companies.Metro plans to pick a firm sometime next month and wants a logo ready by the end of summer.Uniforms, signage and marketing materials are all slated for production in 2015, making it imperative that a logo be readied within the next several months.Asked what he would design for a streetcar logo, Mara said with a laugh, \"A dollar sign.\"Metro officials said they do not know how much they plan to spend on the logo. They described the amount as \"modest.\"The design will come from federal grant money set aside for marketing purposes, officials said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wlwt.com/article/metro-to-begin-process-to-create-marketing-for-streetcar/3542762>