“Subway” by Christoph Niemann, 2010
Forget the children, this is one of my favourite books! Buy on Amazon here (affiliate link). Source: Greenwillow Books website – link no longer active
Month: October 2012
Stickers on the Central Line, London Underground
From the now sadly defunct “Stickers on the Central Line” Tumblr, are these hilarious and superbly executed “prank” stickers found on the London Underground. Matching the original strip map almost exactly, they instead insert something unexpected, pointed, or just plain funny. My favourite? Change at Tottenham Court Road for a submarine to Somalia, complete with a very plausible London Underground submarine icon. More here in this imgur album. Hat tip to Twitter user Ben Darfler.
Historical Map: Boston Commuter Rail, 1976
Here’s a fine piece of mid-1970s transit map design, showing Boston’s extensive commuter rail network. Its style is definitely in line with other North American maps of this period, including this one of Philadelphia’s SEPTA system from 1980 – sharp lines and clean typography were the order of the day back then, it seems. Have we been there? I’ve been to Boston, but haven’t used the commuter rail system. What we like: Clean, clear and […]
Photo: Paris Metro Map, Line 12
Nice shallow depth of field, but was he holding the camera up way over his head to get this point of view? Source: Cormac Phelan/Flickr
Official Map: LPP Bus Network, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2012
Here’s an interesting diagrammatic bus-only map from Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Slovenia in Central Europe. Completely diagrammatic bus maps are a fairly rare breed, as users often want to be able to see exactly where the routes go along roads. Because of this, geographical maps and slightly simplified geographical maps tend to be the most popular forms of bus map. In this case, the small number of routes, the small size of […]
Photo: Sannomiya Station, Kobe
Such a great photo. Source: daveweekes68/Flickr
“Subway Series” by Henry Hargreaves
Amazing series of photos by Henry Hargreaves where he recreates transit maps out of everyday materials. Shown here are Moscow made from coloured yarn, and New York, beautifully recreated with ribbon. He’s also done Paris, London and Washington, DC. Source: CMYBacon – link no longer active
Photo: Turn on the Bright Lights…
Still in Tokyo, but can I just say how much I adore this wayfinding system? Bright and attractive floor-to-ceiling illuminated signs with simple, easy-to-understand iconography and impossible to miss directional arrows (note how they’re located above head height, so they’re always visible, even in a crowd). And there’s a nice big locality map, too! Stuff like this makes a transit system fun and pleasant to use, but its worth often seems to be underestimated. Source: […]
Photo: Map Reading
No matter how simple the system, there still always seems to be infinite potential for confusion – even if it’s just choosing which side of the platform to stand on. Source: -Canonist-/Flickr
Photo: Subway/Kimono
Simply lovely photo. Although… is that a Mickey Mouse pattern on her kimono? Source: davegolden/Flickr