Greater Indy Trailways

The Challenge

Building a unified brand for a trail network is, at its core, a problem of trust and belonging. The brand identity would need to resonate across an extraordinarily diverse range of users, including dailycommuters, weekend adventurers, families with strollers, and competitive cyclists, while also earning the confidence of dozens of trail associations, municipalities, and local partners spanning nine counties. As a whole, our solution also needed to address a practical problem uncovered during research: information was a critical barrier to trail access within and across communities. People didn’t know how to find the trails, what to expect when they got there, or whether the trails were really meant for someone like them.

Our Work

We started where we always do, by listening. Over several months, the SmallBox team facilitated interviews and focus groups, conducted on-site observations across the region, and administered a public survey that gathered nearly 1,000 responses from area residents and visitors. From that research, we developed four audience profiles grounded not in demographics, but in motivations: Connection Seekers, Health Advocates, Purposeful Travelers, and Eager Adventurers. These profiles became the strategic lens for every decision that followed.

The brand that emerged centers on connection, both the physical connectivity of the trails themselves and the human connections they make possible. The name Greater Indy Trailways (nicknamed The Trailways) was developed through direct community engagement. The logo draws from intersecting trail signage, weaving together a mosaic of colors that represent the region’s diverse experiences, with a trail leading toward the horizon embedded in the negative space. Alongside the brand identity, we developed comprehensive brand guidelines, audience-specific messaging frameworks, and a brand narrative, all designed to empower dozens of partner organizations to show up consistently across their own communications.

The system language work addressed one of the project’s most complex challenges: creating a unified visual and linguistic framework for trails that had evolved under different management structures over decades. Starting with data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, the SmallBox team inventoried trail terms, naming conventions, and graphic identities across the full network. The result was the Greater Indy Trailways System Language Guide, establishing trail hierarchy, standardizing naming conventions, and providing a flexible wayfinding framework for communities across the region. We also developed a Trail Logos Style Guide and designed or refreshed visual identities for more than a dozen individual trails, each through a process of stakeholder research, community focus groups, and iterative design review.

All of that work converged in TheTrailways.com, a mobile-first, map-forward website designed to make exploring 800 miles of trails feel genuinely inviting. The site features an interactive map built from the ground up, curated itineraries, dedicated pages for Premier Trails, and a custom WordPress CMS that the Greater Indy Trailways team can manage and grow long after launch. We also designed a metro-style schematic map of the full system, adaptable for print and merchandise.

The Impact

What this project revealed is that the trails were already doing something remarkable. People were finding community, commuting, and discovering peace and adventure along them every day. Our role at SmallBox was to bring that to the surface. To give it a name, a look, and a place to live.

At its core, Greater Indy Trailways is a shared creation shaped by the voices, insights, and experiences of hundreds of people across Central Indiana. And maybe most importantly, the relationships formed along the way carry just as much meaning as the brand itself.