This map has certainly seen better days! The fact that the Hammersmith & City (salmon pink) line is not shown dates this map prior to 1990: the “peak hour only” dashed line on the very light purple Metropolitan Line, combined with the black text for station names leads me to believe that this is the 1985 map. By 1987, the Metropolitan Line had become a much darker colour, and station labels were the now-familiar blue.
Great little slice of history here. The photographer on Flickr seems to recall the cost of a token as being 60 cents at the time; Wikipedia prices it at $1.15. As a graphic designer, all I can see is the terrible registration in the (cheap) printing – look at the huge yellow halo bleeding out to the right of the green and red printed areas. (In four-colour printing, green is made from combining cyan and […]
Fantasy Map: Baltimore Subway Restaurants as Subway Lines Is it scary that this actually looks incredibly plausible? There’s even a Circle Line that mirrors the beltway rather nicely. Great fun! Map by Chris Nelson. (Source: @everydayelk/Twitter)
I love this photo! Source: mark justin harvey/Flickr
I absolutely love this now-and-then snapshot of what is now the busiest subway system in the world. The picture on the left is from the first edition of Lonely Planet’s guide to China in 1984; the one on the right is from the 13th edition, released this year. That’s only a 29 year gap – quite astounding! Source: two tweets from Daniel McCrohan, a writer for Lonely Planet’s China and Beijing guides. 1984 and 2013.
Submitted by Jeffery Bridgman, who says: A bath towel with the different services (different types of local/express trains) that run on the Keio lines in Tokyo. Hilarious! http://railf.jp/news/2013/02/22/100000.html Transit Maps says: Oh, those crazy Japanese! Still, one can’t help but think that Douglas Adams – whose 61st birthday would have been two days ago – would have approved. Because, after all, a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. […]
Long time readers will be aware of my low opinion of the Washington DC Metro Rail map – here’s a fairly scathing review of the “Rush+” map (March 2012, 2.5 stars) to refresh your memory. It looks like WMATA is preparing for the opening of the Silver Line and has put a draft version of a new map up for comments. According to the blurb there, the route lines are now thinner and station names […]
Submitted by dpecs, who says: Vignelli-inspired map (designer unknown) of the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Roads. On display until March 15th at the New York Transit Museum’s exhibit Grand By Design, on the centennial of Grand Central Terminal. Transit Maps says: Designer unknown? The amazing book “Helvetica and the New York City Subway” attributes this map to one Joan Charysyn, saying she designed it freelance in between stints at Vignelli Associates and Unimark. It’s […]
To be honest, this is a pretty small category and I’m only including it for completeness’ sake. Included in this category are san serif fonts that don’t fall into any of the three major categories, veering more towards the decorative or ornamental. Examples of this include the Madrid Metro’s severe, squared off typeface (that matches the aesthetics of the map almost perfectly), and the similar, but less successful, square font that was once used in […]
The third – and most diverse – category of sans serif typefaces is known as humanist sans. Compared to the grotesque and geometric categories, humanist sans typefaces almost calligraphic, with a natural variation in line weight and open characters that enhance legibility. With less “rules” to their construction, there’s a much greater variety of letter forms – meaning it’s easier to find a typeface that projects its own unique personality upon your map, which can […]
