Month: February 2014

Submission – Unofficial MARTA (Atlanta, Georgia) Map by Andrew Whited

February 12, 2014
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Now this I like! Part of an overall identity project for MARTA that Andrew completed, here’s his stylish revision of the system map (I reviewed the official one way, way back in October 2011, giving it a pretty generous 3 stars). The MARTA system isn’t that complex – essentially only having two intersecting trunk lines with a couple of branches – so simplifying it down and abstracting it like this works really well. The slightly […]

Submission – Tutorial: Changing the Background Colour of a Text Box

February 12, 2014
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Graphic Fix: Change Background Color of Text Box in Illustrator Problem: My Kentucky Ave label overlaps with objects below it, resulting in a cluttered appearance. Turns out, there is a super easy fix for something like this! Create the Area Text (text box). Select the Area Text with the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow).  In the Appearance panel select desired background fill color and adjust Transparency to your heart’s content.  Your labels should now look […]

Official Maps: Transportation at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

February 11, 2014
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A few requests for these very topical maps, so here goes! The XXII Winter Games are now in full swing, but how do spectators get around? The Games are divided into two very distinct zones: the Olympic Park down by the Black Sea in Sochi itself for all the indoor sports; and the Mountain Zone, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) up into the Caucasus Mountains, where all the sports that actually require snow are held. […]

Submission – Historical Map: Los Angeles Metro, 1997

February 10, 2014
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From reader Chris Bastian comes this awesome old photo of an early Los Angeles Metro map, dated precisely to the 14th of November 1997, thanks to our old friend the date stamp. The map is incredibly primitive compared to today’s polished effort, with unevenly spaced stations, labels at all sorts of angles, clumsy integration of Metrolink services, and lots of big, ugly call-out boxes. However, we can see that by 1997, the Blue and Green […]

Fantasy Map: North American Metro Map by Mark Knoke

February 6, 2014
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Obviously inspired by – and clearly credited as such – the brilliant xkcd “Subways of North America” map, here’s a quite staggeringly detailed map of pretty much every rail-based rapid transit system in North America, including future expansions and upcoming new systems like Honolulu’s HART elevated light rail. Like the xkcd map, all the systems link up at their termini to form one giant Metro map that spans the entire continent. True, the map isn’t […]

Official Map: Brussels Integrated Transit Map

February 5, 2014
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One of the most requested maps so far — thanks to thecitygeek, bjorkborg, Mladen Stilinovic and a couple of anonymous readers for sending this my way! According to my correspondents, Brussels has recently switched from a geographical transit map to this new diagrammatic map. As you can see by comparing the two images of the centre of the city above, a lot of streamlining and simplification has taken place. The first thing that strikes me is […]

Unofficial Map: Dubai Integrated Transport Network System Map Design Proposal by Kyril Negoda

February 4, 2014
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Via: mappingtwincities/Tumblr (account no longer active) A few months ago, Matt Forrest (Carticulate Maps) asked me to redesign Dubai’s system map as part of a larger proposal Matt was working on at the time. Here is what we did. Seriously beautiful work here from Kyril Negoda, who made this great future map of transit in Minneapolis/St. Paul (May 2013, 5 stars). It’s a great example of how a well-designed transit map can simplify and clarify […]