I’ve had quite a few requests to review this new map out of Mexico City, so here goes…

The first thing to note is that Lance Wyman, the designer of the original Mexico City Metro logo and much of the design language of that system (the original station icons and the distinctive Tipo Metro typeface, for example) was involved in this work, though I’m not certain as to what extent. Certainly, the Movilidad Integrada “MI” logo to the top left of the map bears all the hallmarks of his work, and it’s this logo that pulls all the branding together.

The surrounding arrows, moving both in and out and to all compass directions, utilize the colours of the eight component parts that make up the integrated system – Concesionado, Cablebús, CETRAM, Metrobús, Ecobici, RTP, Transportes Eléctricos, and the Metro itself. As seen in the tweet by the Secretary of Integrated Mobility embedded below, the logos of these services have been reworked to fit inside the shape made by the new MI logo – a rounded square with triangular notches cut out of each side. I’m also guessing that the line weight of each of the logos has been worked on to make them all consistent.

In principle, it’s a good way to unify these disparate and varied logos, though I’m more than a little sad that the iconic shape of the Metro logo is now boxed into another less interesting shape. The price to pay for unity?

These notches are repeated as a framing design element across the map: the map itself has notches in its border, as do all the service information boxes below it, except for the two rightmost ones. These are services that are shown on the map (the Tren Suburbano and Mexibús), but that are not part of the MI group, so it’s actually a pretty clever design feature. Their boxes are also light grey instead of white, which helps to further differentiate them.

But what of the map itself?

For starters, it’s diagrammatic instead of geographical like the official Metro map – which I’ve previously likened to “a giant pile of spaghetti” (December 2015, 1.5 stars) – which I think helps enormously to untangle the heavily congested central part of the map. And if this map only showed the Metro and other rail services, I’d probably see it as a huge improvement and call the redesign largely successful.

But! – it also has to incorporate all the other services that make it a truly integrated map, and it deals with some far more successfully than others. Some, like the Tren Ligero and the Tren Suburbano, act as extensions of the Metro network and are integrated easily. The Metrobús services also get treated fairly well, with route numbers and intermediate stops indicated, although the MB4 route is often obscured in the central part of the map by other elements like station names. Finally, the trolleybus and RTP buses are right at the bottom of the information hierarchy and only have general paths shown without any route designations at all. It’s just enough information to let a reader know that these services exist, but is it useful enough to aid in travel planning? I have my doubts.

My biggest problem with the map, however, would have to be the labelling of stations. While Tipo Metro is a wonderfully distinctive typeface and a huge part of the Metro’s identity, I find it particularly unsuitable as a wayfinding typeface. It’s a very wide font, and has a lot of very similar letterforms because of its caps-only form. On this map, it’s also tiny. The official PDF of the map is set up to be slightly less than 36″ wide by 48″ deep (90cm x 120cm), yet the characters for standard labels are just 0.08 inches tall (or about 6 points!). That’s absolutely minuscule, and some labels – such as those for the bus routes – are even smaller. The lack of ascenders and descenders does mean that the labels can be set very compactly – forming neat, uniform blocks – but if the type isn’t legible, is that actually useful?

For the most part, I don’t mind the angled labels – they only go one direction and give a distinctive angularity to the map – but they are a bit inconsistent in places. They’re angled on the northern end of Metro Line B, for example, but horizontal on a corresponding section of the Tren Suburbano.

Some other nice touches: the little cartouches around the bike station icons. The half-thickness of the one-way parts of the bus lines. Excellent use of white keylines to separate different layers of information.

Our rating: A real mixed bag. Any attempt to present an integrated view of transit in a sprawling metropolis like Mexico City should be applauded, but I’m not sure this one totally hits its mark. The overall branding is lovely, but truly integrated transit is more than just branding. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: Mexico City Metro website