Game Day Bus
Valley Regional Transit
The Game Day Bus has been helping Boise State fans get to and from games for years. For the 2026 football season, I was brought in by Stoltz Marketing Group to collaborate on a fresh identity and campaign for the program.
My role focused on developing the creative direction and building a flexible visual system that could carry across social, digital, signage, bus graphics, and other placements throughout Boise.
The Challenge
The opportunity was bigger than simply promoting an existing service. The Game Day Bus needed a recognizable identity of its own, something that could refresh the program while still feeling distinctly Valley Regional Transit.
The campaign also needed to capture the energy of a Boise State game day without looking like an official Boise State campaign. Beyond getting fans to the stadium, the service gives VRT an opportunity to introduce more people to public transit through an easy and useful first experience.
Exploring the Direction
Early concepts explored several ways to connect the service with Boise State football, including mascot driven ideas and graphics inspired by plays and playbooks.
As the concepts developed, the opportunity became less about borrowing from familiar game day imagery and more about creating something the program could truly own. That led to an idea that connected transportation and football directly: turning the bus itself into the graphic.
The Solution
The refreshed Game Day Bus identity centers around a custom typographic illustration where GAME DAY BUS forms the shape of a bus. After exploring several versions, the graphic was simplified and refined to feel bold, recognizable, and familiar to riders who see buses throughout the community.
Football field graphics and a sense of forward motion brought the identity into the game day environment, making the bus feel like it was moving down the field.
More than a standalone mark, the new identity became the foundation for a flexible campaign system. The graphic could expand, shift, and adapt across social media, web graphics, route information, A frames, bench ads, and bus graphics while remaining recognizable throughout.
The result gives an established Valley Regional Transit service a more distinctive identity of its own, connecting the excitement of Boise State football with the role public transit can play in getting fans to the game.
A Personal Note
What I like most about this project is how one simple idea grew into an identity of its own. Instead of relying entirely on familiar football imagery, we created something that feels specific to the Game Day Bus and flexible enough to work almost anywhere.
The typographic bus is probably my favorite part. It works as a mark, an illustration, and a larger graphic element, giving the campaign something recognizable that VRT can truly own.
Client
Valley Regional Transit
Agency Partner
Stoltz Marketing Group
Services
Brand Identity, Campaign Design, Concept Development, Art Direction
Year
2026