Submitted by Jaap, who says:

I’m a Dutch information designer and design school teacher. I would like to submit my map of the Amsterdam Metro and Train network for your review.

Transit Maps says:

Jaap actually sent me a version of this map quite a while ago, and I’m sorry to say that it’s been languishing in my inbox since then. Which is a bit of a crime, because I think this is an excellent, compact little diagram. By eschewing geography almost entirely (only the IJ is included for orientation and there’s no attempt at all to render Amsterdam’s famous canals), Jaap has been able to condense the network down to just its essential elements.

The Metro lines are clear and bold with clearly labelled stops, and the train lines fit nicely into their supporting role. The underlying grid is solid, and the layout allows the type for the labels to be set nice and big. While no routes or service patterns are indicated on these train lines, a reader can quickly and easily see that there are connections from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal Amsterdam Zuid and RAI just by following the route lines. Simple, but effective.

Jaap’s made the interesting decision to change some of the line colours away from the official ones (the M50 switches from green to orange; the M51 from orange to cyan; while the new M52 is purple instead of cyan). In his previous submission, he said that this was to increase contrast between adjacent route lines, which certainly is an issue with the official orange/yellow/red combination of lines out of Amsterdam Centraal. Jaap also notes that “together, the new line colors form a rainbow flag, a reference to Amsterdam’s progressive values and support of gender and sexual diversity”, which is actually a pretty neat little piece of design.

My complaints are very minor – Schiphol is misspelled as “Shiphol”, and the curve on the rail line out of Muiderpoort towards Amsterdam Amstel seems like it’s been cut off a little short when compared to other similar curves on the map.

Our rating: Compact and minimal, this is a superbly legible diagram that doesn’t waste a single bit of space. I’m not entirely sure that designers should normally unilaterally decide to alter official line colours, but Jaap uses his changes to teach a good lesson about using contrasting adjacent colours. Nice work all around!