Atlanta Beltline refreshes its logo, website

A new logo and website for the Atlanta Beltline is being unveiled to better reflect how the project has evolved over the past 19 years.

Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc., said the project will mark its 20^th anniversary next year (based on the passage of the Beltline Tax Allocation District). 

“We wanted new branding that reflected who we are, where we started and where we are going,” Higgs said. “If we are being honest, this started off as a trail initiative, but we are so much more than that. Yes, we are a trail, but we’re also affordable housing, economic develop, and in the future, transit. This refresh is a visual representation from where we have come.”

The original logo features 45 blue and green squares in a circle to represent the 45 neighborhoods along the 22-mile circular corridor. The new logo — called the Beacon — carries forth the circular feel of the Beltline, but it adds the color red to the mix. It only has eight shapes that form a circle, creating a multisided star in the middle.

“Atlanta is synonymous with red,” said Meghann Gibbons, Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s vice president of communication and media relations. She pointed to the colors of Atlanta’s professional sports teams and Coca-Cola which all use red. Also, the colors represented the diversity of Atlanta and its communities.

Rob Brawner, executive director of Atlanta Beltline Partnership, actually worked on the original logo when he joined the organization in 2006.

“I had a lot of emotional attachment to the old logo,” said Brawner, who is now “super excited” about the branding refresh. “What I love about the new brand is that it marks the evolution of the project. The new brand still maintains the connectivity of Atlanta, but it also is more outward-focused. It really is a beacon to the rest of the country and the rest of the world about what the BeltLine means — inclusivity, equity and connectivity.”

The rebrand was led by Atlanta-based marketing agency Alloy. The agency was hired in 2023 to develop the new visual identity and website. Alloy strengthened the Beltline’s information architecture and re-platformed the site to a tech stack that positions the Beltline for future growth while incorporating the new brand mark. 

“The Atlanta Beltline is one of the largest, most wide-ranging urban redevelopment programs in the United States, so the opportunity to reimagine their brand creative and digital ecosystem was an immense honor for our team,” said Jennifer Ready, Alloy’s chief creative officer, said in a statement.  “We made sure everything — from trail signs to website landing pages — connects with as many Atlantans as possible and gives every user the best experience. We’re confident that the Beltline now has one of the most modern and future-forward websites in the city.”

The Beltline’s website had not been redone since 2012. It had more than 6,675 pages, which made it hard to navigate. The new website has been streamlined to a little more than 1,300 pages.

The Atlanta Beltline has about 2 million visitors a year, but the website only gets about 45,000 unique visitors per month. The hope is that the new website will be more user friendly and drive more people to visit the project online. The branding refresh also changes the typeface of the BeltLine to use a lowercase “l” so it’s now Beltline.

The Atlanta Beltline is ramping up construction so it can complete the 22-miles of trails. It is on schedule to complete 16.3 miles of trails within the first three months of 2026, where there will be the first full connection between the Eastside and Westside trails. In 2024, there are 13 active construction projects including mainline and connector trails, streetscapes projects and green space. 

“One of the most important superpowers of the Beltline is to connect and unify communities,” Higgs said. “It’s emotional, physical and spiritual. It comes together with civil discourse. Hopefully, we can become a global beacon for bringing communities together and having spaces where we can have civil discourse. We are not always going to agree. I think that’s very relevant today — pulling people together.”