Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Map: 1974 New York MTA Commuter Rail Map

March 11, 2013
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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 […]

Transit Map Typefaces: Other Styles (Part 4 of 4)

March 9, 2013
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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 […]

Transit Map Typefaces: Humanist Sans (Part 3 of 4)

March 8, 2013
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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 […]

Transit Map Typefaces: Geometric Sans (Part 2 of 4)

March 6, 2013
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Geometric sans serif typefaces – as their name suggests – are based on geometrical shapes, especially circles for their “o”. Many of these typefaces have their roots in the 1920s and 1930s, and often reflect the Art Deco aesthetic of that period. Of the three sans serif categories, this is my least favourite for use on transit maps. Their rigid reliance on geometry makes them a little inflexible in use, and because many of the […]

Transit Map Typefaces: Grotesque Sans (Part 1 of 4)

March 6, 2013
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This series of posts is inspired by an anonymous poster, who requested some information on typography in transit map design. Almost without exception*, modern transit maps use sans serif typefaces for their labelling. Sans serif literally translates to English as “without [a] serif”, and denotes that the typeface does not have serifs: those little nubs at the top and bottom of characters that can help the eye follow large amounts of text. The practice of using […]

Photo: Vignelli NYC Subway Map – Street Grid

March 1, 2013
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An image from Massimo Vignelli’s recent talk at the New York Transit Museum about the development of his (in)famous diagram. The chance to hear Vignelli talk about his work really makes me wish that I lived in New York. Anyway, I find this image particularly interesting because it shows the underlying grid of streets and avenues that was used to place the route lines accurately. Although the map we see here appears to be the […]

Photo: (Back in) Time Tunnel

March 1, 2013
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I love it when people find old transit maps still in situ at stations. This Northern Line map at Embankment dates from sometime prior to 1999 (the year that the Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross closed), but is still in place today – this photo was taken on February 21, 2013. Note also the beautiful 1914 green glazed tiles next to the map. Source: stavioni/Flickr

Photo: Brussels Metro Line Map and Next Train Countdown

February 28, 2013
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A companion piece to the official map (Dec. 2012, 3 stars) on the platform at Rogier station. The look of this map marries with the official map quite well, showing an admirable consistency in application. Rogier station itself is clearly shown with a nice big arrow and stations before it on the lines are clearly indicated against greyed-out route lines. There’s also a nicely legible countdown for the next two trains, indicating their route number […]

Official Map: CTrain, Calgary, Canada, 2013

February 22, 2013
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Lots of people have requested this map, but I’ve held off for a while as some extensions to the system and amendments to the map itself have been made. Calgary Transit actually released a preliminary version of this map last year and asked for public input on it via an on-line survey, which is good to see. However, it’s not the most thrilling map, and there’s still one quirk with it that could cause some […]