What Fresh Hell is This?
Possibly one of the worst uses of the “subway map” design metaphor I’ve ever seen. I can’t even bring myself to comment any further. Source: wtf-viz/Tumblr – link no longer active
Month: August 2013
Submission – Aerial Transit Map of Salt Lake City, Utah
Submitted by Aaron Sebright, who says: After seeing the aerial maps of the New York City Subway system and Portland’s Rail system, I decided to try it out on my home city of Salt Lake City! Granted that at the end of the year, it will have three light rail lines, one street car line and one commuter rail line it is even simpler than Portland’s at this scale. (Not pictured in this photo is […]
Future Map: FutureNYCSubway by Andrew Lynch
An updated look at my futureNYCSubway proposal using an expanded Vignelli map. More excellent work from Andrew Lynch (aka vanshnookenraggen) – this time, an astoundingly well-considered analysis of future plans for the New York Subway. The resultant map is quite beautiful as well, based as it is off Massimo Vignelli’s 2008/Weekender revision of his classic 1970s map. I strongly encourage you to click through to Andrew’s website and read the full rationale behind this map: […]
Unofficial Map: Circular Sydney Suburban Railways by Maxwell Roberts
I have to admit: I’m still not entirely convinced by either the usability or the aesthetics the new “circular transit maps” design trend. However, I think I’ll make an exception for this diagram of my hometown of Sydney, Australia, which is… just beautiful. Designed by the man at the vanguard of this design movement, Maxwell Roberts, this map actually has a lot of visible advantages over the current official Sydney rail map (Sept. 2012, 3.5 […]
Historical Map: MBTA Keychain, c. 1978-1979
Submitted by dinnerkettle, who says: Inherited this MBTA keychain from my aunt recently. There’s no exact date on it, but it was definitely made before the red line got extended past Harvard and before some other stops got renamed. Transit Maps says: What a great piece of transit map-related ephemera! The best I can date it is after 1980 (when Braintree opened; an arrow points to it at the bottom right of the map), but […]
Unofficial Map: Montreal Metro in the style of the London Tube Map by Corey Landels
Here’s a fun little piece sent my way by Montreal-based designer Corey Landels: the Métro de Montréal redesigned in the style of the iconic London Underground map. While it’s definitely a fun little homage, I do feel that Corey could have pushed a little harder to match the designs more closely and demonstrate a better understanding of the “Beckian” principles at play behind the design of the Tube map (in short, absolute simplification of route […]
Historical Map: Berlin U-Bahn Connections, late 1930s
Staying with Berlin for another day, here’s a neat, compact little connections map from the late 1930s. The presence of the “Reichsportsfeld” U-Bahn station means this map must be from no earlier than 1936, while “Adolf-Hitler-Platz” stands as a stark reminder of the dark days that Europe was about to face. The map is very simple (but not crude; the draftsmanship is excellent), and is embellished with some understated but gorgeous hand-lettering – there’s absolutely […]
Historical Concept Map: Circular Berlin U- and S-Bahn Map, c.1990
Circular transit diagrams are certainly all the rage at the moment. I’ve reviewed two different takes on London here and here, and Maxwell Roberts’ circular New York diagram is generating a lot of internet buzz at the moment. That’s not to say that it’s a completely new and original concept, however. Harry Beck tried his hand at a circular Underground diagram in 1964, and Berlin’s Ringbahn was abstracted into a perfect circle as far back […]
Historical Map: 1896 German Map of the London Underground
This map of the nascent London Underground and “other railways” appears in the 14th edition of Brockhaus’ Konversations-Lexikon, a respected German encylopedia that is still in business today. Now known simply as the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, the 21st edition was published in 2006 and runs to over 24,000 pages in 30 volumes. The map itself is pretty simple and traditional, notable for being printed in three colours (black, red and a rather lovely teal blue). Production-wise, this […]
Visualisation: Three-Dimensional Real-Time Map of the London Underground
A stunning visualisation of the London Underground by visual developer Bruno Imbrizi. There’s certainly a lot of fun to be had zooming, rotating and panning the view around and turning each line on and off. It’s another great example of what can be done with publicly-available data: in this case, train arrival times, the location of each station and its depth below the surface. Read Bruno’s explanation of the project here and view the visualisation […]