cta – John Morrison – Product Strategy and Brand Identity

The Chicago Avenue CTA Brown Line station in a storm.

I love thunderstorms. I remember sitting on my parent’s porch when I was a child and just listening to the rain. It’s always had a soothing affect on me. Chicago’s storms are fewer and further between but no less beautiful.

Unfortunately these days I’m very often working or sleeping through these storms and my garden apartment does is so well insulated that even just listening to a storm is next to impossible.

Sunday as I was leaving work I got lucky. I managed to get to the Chicago Brown line stop just as it started to rain. I took a few moments to just sit and watch the rain and listen to the sound of it beating down on the wood and metal around me. This is my calm, this is what puts me at peace.

By the time I got up to my neighborhood the rain had stopped and the sun was brightly shining through the clouds. Moments like these are among my favorites, everything just glistens from the moisture before it completely evaporates into the sun.

A few weeks back I popped up to Loyola to visit a friend for lunch. I’ve always been a big fan of college campus’s especially the architecture. When I used to live in New York I would often find myself sitting in the middle of the Columbia University campus just taking in the surroundings and people watching, even though I wasn’t a student there.

Being the kind of person that I am Loyola’s campus was really interesting to me, but of course what fascinated me most on that particular day was not the sprawling lawns, beautiful brick work or striking arches, but the parking garage and it’s immediate surroundings.

One of the things I enjoyed most was it’s proximity to the CTA train line and the unique perspective it offered of the tracks themselves. Expect to see a lot more shots in the future focusing on the CTA.

I did of course also take a few pictures of the other the other things as well, not just the parking garage. Enjoy.