Such a great photo.
Source: daveweekes68/Flickr
Photo: Sannomiya Station, Kobe
“Subway Series” by Henry Hargreaves
Amazing series of photos by Henry Hargreaves where he recreates transit maps out of everyday materials. Shown here are Moscow made from coloured yarn, and New York, beautifully recreated with ribbon. He’s also done Paris, London and Washington, DC.
Source: CMYBacon – link no longer active
Photo: Turn on the Bright Lights…
Still in Tokyo, but can I just say how much I adore this wayfinding system? Bright and attractive floor-to-ceiling illuminated signs with simple, easy-to-understand iconography and impossible to miss directional arrows (note how they’re located above head height, so they’re always visible, even in a crowd). And there’s a nice big locality map, too! Stuff like this makes a transit system fun and pleasant to use, but its worth often seems to be underestimated.
Source: librarymook/Flickr
Photo: Map Reading
No matter how simple the system, there still always seems to be infinite potential for confusion – even if it’s just choosing which side of the platform to stand on.
Source: -Canonist-/Flickr
Photo: Subway/Kimono
Simply lovely photo. Although… is that a Mickey Mouse pattern on her kimono?
Source: davegolden/Flickr
Fantasy Map: FF Yoga and FF Yoga Sans Font Sample (2009)
Designed to showcase two new typeface families from the FontFont foundry, this “Metro map” looks quite spectacular at first glance, with some lovely colour combinations and design details. It’s only on closer inspection that you realise that it’s actually a superb piece of nonsense – nothing really makes any sense at all.
Most type – apart from the few major “stations” – is way too small to be useful, and the circled line designations are scattered randomly around, instead of being located at the end of routes. There’s also a faint grid at a very slight angle, which lines up with neither the orthogonal grid of the routes or the north pointer at the bottom left. And what do the thin white lines across the route lines mean? Even the station names themselves are a bit of a hodge-podge: many are named after Paris Métro stations, but there’s also a few famous people thrown in, and even a few basic French words here and there.
And yes, I realise how silly it is to nitpick an imaginary transit map created to showcase some shiny new typefaces, but – hey, that’s what I do.
Source: FontFont/Flickr – link no longer active
Photo: The Colors of Public Transit
I love, love, love this photo of wayfinding signage in Chicago. Anyone know which station this is? I’m guessing one of the Wabash stations on the Loop, but don’t know enough about them to narrow it down further.
Edit: Knowledgeable readers have identified this sign as being at Clark/Lake station – thanks!
Source: k.james/Flickr
Official Map: The Wave Bus Network, Nantucket, MA
Here’s a nice little bus network map sent my way by long time Twitter follower, Gordon Werner. Designed by Smartmaps, Inc., it shows the seasonal shuttle bus service on Nantucket Island, known as “The Wave”. Almost predictably, “Ride the Wave!” is their slogan. Is the surf even that good in Nantucket?
Have we been there? No — only to the next island over, Martha’s Vineyard.
What we like: Nicely executed, attractive looking bus route map that neatly doubles as a guide to the major sights and attractions of the island. As the majority of users of the bus service would be visitors to the island, this is a welcome addition (the summer population of Nantucket increases five-fold, from 10,000 to 50,000 people!). Lovely nautical-themed border around the map, although I feel that it could perhaps have been divided into half-mile increments for scale, rather than being purely decorative. Simply lovely little compass rose. Shows bike routes as well.
What we don’t like: The “Wave” logo itself is probably the weakest part of the whole map, and its modern design stands a little at odds with the olde-world nautical theme of the rest of the map. On a map of this small a scale, it would be nice — and useful — to have every stop marked, rather than just two or three in the main downtown area.
Our rating: Solidly designed, useful and attractive. And it’s hard to dislike a map which has Windswept Cranberry Bog as a destination. Four stars.
Source: Official NRTA website via Gordon Werner
Glorious Vintage London Underground Posters!
“London Transport Museum holds over 5,000 posters and artworks in its archives and, on October 4, 2012, some 300 original London Underground advertising posters from its collection will be auctioned for sale through Christie’s South Kensington saleroom. Demand at the auction is likely to be high but if you can’t afford an original, reprints of the images shown here are available through the London Transport Museum shop. You can see more of the posters for sale on the Christie’s website.”
Not transit maps today, just some glorious old London Underground posters.
Photo — Historical Map: Boston Sights
Boston seems to rival only Washington, DC for old system maps being left in place at stations and on trains. This photo was taken in August of this year, but the map dates from between 2004 to 2008 (the extension of the Silver Line to City Point is the giveaway). I’d probably lean towards the earlier end of that range, due to the “Silver Line Waterfront” designation.
One thing to note is how much cleaner this map looks than the current one: helped a lot by no geography at all, no key bus routes, and interchanges with commuter rail being marked with a neat purple square rather than the entire line.
That’s not to say that the map isn’t without its little quirks, though – the large initial capital letters on the station labels are pretty ugly and the triple asterisk as a footmark notation at Bowdoin station is faintly ridiculous. And the Silver Line still joins onto the loop around Logan Airport the wrong way…
Source: Mr.Konstantin/Flickr