Hardly the most original idea in the world, but nicely executed. More details:Advertising Agency: Park&Co, Phoenix Arizona, USACreative Director: Luis MedinaSenior Art Director: Shawn HardyCopywriter: Dan OboylePublished: June 2011 Source: helloyoucreatives
It’s been a while since Transit Maps featured an historical map, so here’s one from my city of Portland, Oregon. This charming map was produced by the Portland Traction Company in 1943: check out their nifty monogram in the photo set. While it’s labelled as a “trolley map” of Portland, it actually marks a point in time where streetcars and trolley buses were being replaced with cheaper to operate buses, and transit as a whole […]
Hey, I got to make a transit map for work! This base map will eventually show all the issues (and solutions) that my company has identified for this part of the corridor, but I can’t show you that part, just the map itself. These “issues maps” are usually created from GIS data overlaid on a low-quality aerial photo, so it’s definitely nice to break the mould and create something more visually compelling and stylish. I’m […]
If the name of your station is in light grey, the trains from this platform are not going there. Simple but effective wayfinding signage from Rome’s Metro. Source: Matt Taylor Hobbs/Flickr
The very best transit diagrams have every element working in harmony to present a cohesive visual message. When even one element is out of place, a map can suffer. When that element is as important as the depiction of the region’s geography, the results can be disastrous, as shown by this map of Rotterdam’s Metro. Have we been there? No. What we like: The routes themselves are shown very clearly, with interchange stations and the […]
This is something you just have to look at: an amazing animated timeline of the Boston MBTA Subway over at Andrew Lynch’s Vanshnookenraggen blog (check out his future MBTA maps while you’re there). To my mind, this work is far superior to the animated history of the New York Subway map that was floating around the interwebs a little while back: it’s clearly dated on the map, it’s fully annotated, and even has a slide […]
Opened in 1979, the Hong Kong MTR (Mass Transit Railway) has a very clean, easy to understand map that visually owes a debt to its previous colonial owners – the UK – via the London Tube map. Have we been there? No (the airport by itself doesn’t count). What we like: Clean and elegant, even with the bilingual requirements of the map. Some unusual but lovely colours for some of the routes, especially the teal […]
The simplified rectilinear grid is such a familiar form for transit maps that when we see something that breaks that mould, the results can be visually stunning. That’s certainly the case with this beautiful map from designer Erik Hammink, who uses the natural circular shape of Amsterdam’s canals to great effect. Have we been there? Yes, although I’ve only used the tram network rather than the Metro service. What we like: Lovely, minimalist European design, […]
