Hugh Syme Explains The Meaning Behind Rush's New Tour Symbol - Ultimate Classic Rock

In an excerpt from UCR's upcoming exclusive conversation, Hugh Syme, Rush's longtime designer and collaborator discussed some of the artwork being used on the 2026 trek.  

"I got word from Allan [Weinrib, Geddy Lee's brother] that Geddy really liked that Led Zeppelin, they all had distinct symbols. [It was similar to how] Prince later had his own symbol that kind of became his quasi-name. But when I heard that he wanted something that indicated three, I started  looking at Celtic lore and Celtic imagery that embodied the whole idea of three elements.  We came across [the symbol that's being used], and my first thought was, 'Well, I think that's also a hazard symbol, like a hazardous material symbol. But it didn't matter, Geddy liked it, so we rendered it in bronze, we rendered it as a watercolor. [There's also] the metal one with the rivets [that] is on Anika's drum kit.

Hugh also discussed the primary tour graphic of the stoplight.

"I knew that we had to have some kind of image that spoke to, it's a go again. We're on again. Somebody gave it a green light, you know? I thought, 'green light, Oh. So I very literally put a stop light together with the green light shining brighter than the other two. It was quite evident that meant that it's a go. The sparrows were an afterthought. I'd already used that motif on some artwork that I did in one of the box sets of Tom Sawyer walking on a fence and sitting on the fence are two sparrows, but flying slightly away from the fence is one sparrow, obviously an allusion to Neil having taken flight. So I used the sparrows again on the wire that held the stoplight. The fact that it was a stoplight, the fact that green is for go and I realized that somebody had greenlit this new tour. I immediately thought, green light, three light. It was kind of a no-brainer that it ended up being a stoplight."