If you ever do a Google image search for the map of the Minsk Metro, you’ll quickly find out that there are a lot of dreary, hackneyed and downright terrible versions of it – both official and unofficial. Despite the simplicity of its X-shaped two-line system (with a third in the works), it just doesn’t seem to inspire good design work.

Until now. 

Ilya Birman – whom Transit Maps has featured a number of times previously – has teamed up with designers Ivan Zviahin and Konstantin Evstratenko to create this absolutely beautiful map, which I totally adore.

The centre of the city is shown geographically, while the outer reaches are shown diagrammatically. This isn’t an unusual technique, but this take on it is particularly stylish, with beautifully rendered grey isometric illustrations of major landmarks (just look at the work put into the stadium!) and a lovely rendition of the city’s waterways and parkland. The soft gradient shadow behind the central circle really helps to lift it out from the background.

More unusually, the map doesn’t have a legend – non-obvious elements are labelled in place as needed, which helps to keep the design nice and clean. Dots in the central part indicate the location of station entrances from the street; a very nice touch. The halftone dot effect used to indicate the future Green Line is attractive, subtle and not something I’ve seen before, but it works really well. 

Ilya’s reused his directional station finder index from his 2013 Moscow Metro map: on a simple system like this, it’s very effective – just follow the arrows to find your station!

Our rating: On his website, Ilya states that the goal of this project was to “design [a] Minsk Metro map for other cities to be jealous of”, and I think he’s definitely succeeded. Head on over to check out the design process and some lovely detailed images of the map’s elements. 5 well-earned stars.

Source: Ilya Birman