Official Map: LPP Bus Network, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2012

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Here’s an interesting diagrammatic bus-only map from Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Slovenia in Central Europe. Completely diagrammatic bus maps are a fairly rare breed, as users often want to be able to see exactly where the routes go along roads. Because of this, geographical maps and slightly simplified geographical maps tend to be the most popular forms of bus map. In this case, the small number of routes, the small size of Ljubljana itself and the defining geography of the rivers through the city help this map work relatively well.

Have we been there? No.

What we like: Very abstract route map for a bus-only network: for the most part it works well, mainly because of the way that the two rivers (the Sava to the north, and the Ljubljanica to the south) help to define the extent of the city.Routes are fairly easy to follow, with termini being called out well. Unusually but effectively, weekday, weekend and night services are all featured on the one map, with colour-coding and route numbering grouping the similar routes together.

Nice typography for the station labels – Erik Spiekermann’s FF Info Display type family is used effectively here, although we’ll get to less successful typography in the next section…

The combined bus stop/direction of travel icon is something I haven’t seen used a lot, and it actually works fairly well, albeit less so where the route line is dashed when everything gets a little busy.

What we don’t like: While FF Info Display is a very nicely-chosen typeface, that can’t be said about some other choices. The stolid, angular Bank Gothic used to denote parts of the city is totally at odds with the soft, humanist touches of FF Info, especially in the map title to the top right of the map (where there’s also a typo in the word “public”, although fortunately not the Really Bad One).

Even worse is the obvious later addition of text at the bottom right, set in Microsoft Tahoma! Quite clearly, changes were made to the map by people without access to the original fonts and the map suffers greatly because of it.

The light blue fill of the Sava River to the north has been accidentally moved to the left relative to its dark blue outline, giving the effect of a thick border on one side and a thin/non-existent border on the other.

Our rating: A solid, if not spectacular, diagrammatic bus route map, let down by some poor typographical choices and some lazy revisions. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: Official LPP website – link no longer active

“Subway Series” by Henry Hargreaves

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Mash-Up Maps

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…

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Photography

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

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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

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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)

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Fantasy Maps

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

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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

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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!

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Advertising

theoinglis:

“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.