When Kal Bedder started designing the Metropass, things got a little crazy.

As the TTC’s newest print and electronic information supervisor in 2004, Bedder was given the weighty responsibility of designing the monthly card.

The passes of 2005 dazzled with psychedelic patterns. Abstract blotches of orange and black, aptly chosen for October, resembled ink blots used by psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach to unearth a patient’s underlying personality traits. In 2006, a slime-green cheetah-like pattern adorned November’s plastic, while December was frenzied with twirling blue and white spirals.

“The dizzying effect of December, shall we say?” Bedder suggested.

His attempt at an artistic revolution certainly made a splash. Scandalized commuters emailed the TTC at the time to ask what the heck was happening inside its design office.

“It was elation and shock and everything in between. It was shocking to a TTCer who was used to their typical pass for years,” Bedder said, pointing to a plain paper pass from the 1980s.

Now 10 years into the job, Bedder is one of a dying breed. As large cities such as New York and Los Angeles opt for reloadable passes, similar to the Presto card, the age of monthly transit passes — and their designers — is going the way of the penny.

Like it or not, the Metropass has become part of Toronto’s identity, a Torontonian’s passport of sorts. An estimated 393,000 people carried the card last October, according to the TTC, which rounds out to about one in six residents.

Bedder says the little card has matured since what he lovingly calls his “Wild West days.” The wacky fonts and occasional laser beams are today replaced by compartmentalized zones: one for the date, one for the card type (“A” for adult, “S” for student).

And there, tucked beside the silver TTC hologram, a window for art. It’s the last place that Bedder, an arts grad, can get creative. Within reason.

“It would be nice to have one nice big landscape, but you just can’t,” he says. “It needs to be functional, first and foremost.”

The job goes far beyond designing 12 months of Metropasses. Bedder also helps with the TTC’s website, designs subway maps, TTC signage and even helped redesign the TTC token. He also designs special “commemorative” weekly passes for big events such as the Toronto International Film Festival and the Caribbean Carnival, formerly called Caribana.

Security measures keep Bedder from revealing too much about upcoming Metropasses, which are designed about five months in advance. The TTC keeps the designs secret for fear of counterfeiting until they are ready to be sold.

Bedder’s role has become more curator than artist. He selects card art from the TTC’s photographic archives, a catalogue of station walls, old streetcars, tiled stairwells.

It may not seem like art, but Bedder sees the images as overlooked beauty in the transit system, an in-between place where busy commuters typically don’t have time to stop, reflect and observe.

“You’ll walk down the same corridor every day and not even see the tiles, with their colours and patterns,” he says, pointing to a card with a blossoming flower mosaic from Dupont station. “I’m profiling these things and putting them to the forefront.”

The TTC once considered allowing local Toronto artists to make their mark on the Metropass. An open call for original art was sent out in 2009.

“Adding original art will enhance the Metropass design, but also make counterfeiting more difficult,” the TTC wrote in a 2009 release.

The plan was later scrapped. When asked about the decision, a TTC spokesperson cited “security reasons.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In the transit world dominated by engineers, urban planners and business analysts, Bedder is one-of-a-kind. He has an education in art and a background in television, having designed TV graphics for MuchMusic.

Like any artist, Bedder veers from portraying the obvious. He would never make the October pass orange and black again.

“We wouldn’t want to be cliché,” he says.

Instead, he shoots for functionality. The colours must be bright, immediately recognizable in a split-second glance from a fare booth attendant.

“The colours have to be prominent. There is no room for subtlety,” he says.

It can be a thankless job. The TTC fields plenty of emails from customers at the start of each month questioning his newest design choices. Like a chef with a poor restaurant review, he says he doesn’t take them to heart.

“They have their questions. Why is it not my station? Why is this blue? Why isn’t it more seasonal?” he says with a soft sigh. “Everyone has an idea of what it should be.”

Still, some consider his work an art. Once, while standing in a Starbucks line wearing an orange TTC vest, Bedder was approached by an elderly woman who asked if he worked for the commission. When he said yes, she scrambled out of the café and eagerly returned with a paper bag filled with her old cards, dating back to the 1980s.

Bedder keeps the Metropass museum in a photo album in his office, sometimes opening it to reflect on the designs of yesteryear.

“It’s really amazing to see how far it’s come,” he says.

While his Metropasses are possibly one of the most publicly viewed designs in the city, Bedder is shy to disclose anything about his artistic life at home. He dabbles in watercolours and sketching, he says, but wouldn’t reveal his subjects.

“More abstract expressionist, let’s say,” he offers before turning his attention back to the cards. “Let’s keep that private.”