When Rush starts a new chapter, whether it’s an album or a tour, there are always questions. The current Fifty Something outing is no exception.

The Canadian legends began their highly anticipated reunion trek earlier this month, playing their first concert together in 11 years at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, where they performed a total of four nights.

Notably, it was the full concert debut for drummer Anika Nilles, who stepped into the hallowed role once held by the late Neil Peart.

But quickly, fans also began to notice the interlocking symbol that’s being used in different ways, including some of the current tour merchandise. The website for the band’s official store offered a bit of a historical explanation: “The guys have always used the number three in their visuals. They asked Hugh Syme to create a symbol for the Fifty Something Tour, and Hugh delivered this strong crescent logo.”

How Hugh Syme Designed the New Symbol for ‘Fifty Something’

We spoke with the legendary designer, who has been working with the group for more than 50 years, a strong bond that first began with 1975’s Caress of Steel. Syme spent over an hour talking with us for an upcoming feature that will focus not just on his work with Rush, but also, other albums from his long career including collaborations with Aerosmith, Whitesnake, Dream Theater, Def Leppard, Kiss and many others.

READ MORE: Why Rush’s Record Label Changed the ‘Caress of Steel’ Cover Art

Within that conversation, Syme dug into the story behind the symbol. “I got word from Allan [Weinrib, Geddy Lee’s brother] that Geddy really liked that Led Zeppelin, they all had distinct symbols,” he recalls. “[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,'” he says. “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.

Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Anika Nilles of Rush

“We just stumbled into it as a symbol [for those particular purposes], but later on, I was doing a poster, there was a coffee cup in [the design] and I put that symbol on the side of the cup. There was some pushback, saying, ‘Well, that’s where you don’t want to have [something that looks like a symbol for] hazardous material, is when you’re about to drink something, so that combination didn’t work.”

How Syme Came Up With the Other Key Tour Designs

When the initial tour graphics surfaced last year at the time of the reunion announcement, it was something that was fairly easy to interpret. It incorporated classic Rush symbolism with some Easter eggs that were very intentional.

“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,‘” he shares. “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,” he reveals. “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.”

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“So I used the sparrows again on the wire that held the stoplight,” he explains. “That’s where that main image came from, but then all the other imagery that came along for the stage show and for the rear screen projection, were all just Allan and I working together on concepts.”

Like the band, Syme also appreciates the history they’ve been able to link with the current design. “The motif of three [with] Hold Your Fire [as an example], we’ve used that motif of three throughout their whole career pretty openly and pretty brazenly, actually,” he says. “So 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.”

What’s Next for Rush?

They’re currently in the midst of a four-show run in Ft. Worth, Texas that will include a rescheduled date on July 2, due to unexpected travel delays that forced them to postpone their initial June 24 concert in the area.

It was, as they noted on social media, a rarity. “Thank you all for understanding! We can count on one hand how many shows we had to cancel or postpone in our 50+ year career,” they wrote. “It’s not in our nature to do so but sometimes things happen that are completely out of our control. We appreciate y’all!”

Outside of that minor hiccup, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been earning universal praise at the shows they’ve done so far. The tour launch in Los Angeles featured performances of nuggets like the full “2112” suite as well as all of 1980’s Moving Pictures. Summarizing those four shows, the band admitted that it had been “effin’ amazing,” the reception that they’d received. “To you, our fans, your steadfast support is what has made this a reality,” they shared, noting that they were “Forever grateful.”

Once the Texas dates wrap up this week, they’ll take a short break and resume touring July 16 with a run of shows in Chicago that will be followed by additional stints in New York and Toronto.

READ MORE: Rush’s ‘Moving Pictures’ Turns 45: Five Facts About Their Biggest Album