Submitted by Mark Field, who says:

Like everyone on this site, I too have always been fascinated by transit maps, and have always wanted to make one but never had a reason. Recently I had opportunity to create one that actually serves a purpose. I work for an international relief and development agency, and our Canadian headquarters recently moved to a new office that had among other things, a bank of offices with glass frontage measuring 8′ x 55′.

At minimum, code required a simple glass manifestation strip, which was fine for some of the office occupants who wanted to be able to see their staff in the common area beyond, while others wanted more privacy. Given the odd shape of this canvas, the mix of coverage requested, and the requirements of manifestation, I was considering making a timeline of significant events in our 75 year history. It was when I applied date markers to a single line that I realized that this wall begged for a transit map.

It was cost prohibitive to create a pre-printed 8′ x 55′ “screen” so instead, I opted for cut vinyl lettering and elements that were put together like a puzzle. Because the wall was made of multiple-width glass panels with silicon seems and gaps around doors, I had to be careful not to have the station titles (which are the cities where we either operate in or have head offices in) cut across panels. I also opted to have any of the lines that cut across panels do so on a horizontal plane. There was also the issue of the required glass manifestation strip that had to be located in a specific height range from the floor.

Finally, our corporate world is divided into various autonomous offices and lines of authority and reporting which I portrayed on the map via the various coloured lines. I also made our office in Guelph, Ontario the “main” office/terminus of the map, so we have direct lines to the other offices. Hard to follow but in our “world” it makes total sense.

We (MAF Canada) are responsible for operations out of two cities (stops) in Angola (represented by the green line) as well as an operation in Canada (the grey line). MAF US is responsible for a number of countries (city/stops) in parts of the world (represented by the purple line), as well as affiliate countries in South America (the blue line). The rest of our world operates out of an international office in the UK (brown lines), and finally, countries that are resourcing countries (those that help raise funds) are represented by the red line. Given the panel width restrictions (not to mention door handle locations that had to be avoided) I did my best to put all of the locations in order relative to lines of latitude and longitude.

Transit Maps says:

I think Mark has said much of what is needed to be said in his introduction to this piece, so suffice it to say that I think that this is rather wonderful. A clever use of an awkward space that fulfills multiple purposes — safety, information and decoration — and looks good while doing it. Mark’s also done a pretty decent job of coming up with his own design language for his map, though it looks like the typeface used is New Johnston or something very similar — the Tube Map’s influence is hard to shake sometimes! Finally, an advantage of the vinyl cut solution is that things can be adjusted relatively easily: I notice that the map’s legend has moved from the bottom of the screen to the top in the final product!

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