Transit Maps

I’ve featured Russian information and type designer Dmitry Goloub’s superb re-imagining of the Milan Metro map previously (October 2013, 5 stars), and now he’s back with his rendition of rail transit in Rome. 

This is a commissioned map for the Welcome to Rome tourist magazine, and it’s certainly a step up from many unofficial maps featured in similar publications throughout the world (often, publishers don’t want to pay the licensing fees to use an official map and instead throw in a cheap knockoff that barely does the job). 

One limitation of the magazine’s format is immediately obvious – the printed page is set up to the A-series ratio (1:1.41), which necessitates some extreme horizontal compression of the network to fit on the page. Dmitry’s hexagonal grid helps his cause a bit here, as 60-degree angles don’t take up as much horizontal space as a standard 45-degree angle would. However, it’s very apparent that the diagram bears little relationship to the geographical reality of Rome – the new Metro C line is shown as heading south-east and then due south instead of its actual almost due east trajectory, while the suburban lines heading south out of Termini station have to take a massive (and imaginary) correctional dogleg to position themselves on the correct side of Metro Line A past Arco di Travertino station. This is certainly still very usable as a diagram of the network, but anyone expecting this map to be representative of the lie of the land – as tourists unfamiliar with the city might – could be in for a surprise. An addition of a “map not to scale” warning to the legend might help.

Interestingly, the map shows the Metro and suburban railways – and even the Vatican’s private railway line! – but not the tram network. In a diagram that’s already tight for space, showing all three modes probably wasn’t practicable, but I do wonder what the rationale behind including the less-likely-to-be-used-by-tourists suburban lines over the trams was.

Personally, I don’t think station names need to be listed twice when they have the same name, like Dmitry has done at Basilica San Paolo and EUR Magliana – it’s redundant and takes up extra space, making the map busier. I’m also undecided about the inclusion of his actual grid as a background element: it does add a nice texture to the map, but it also reveals where Dmitry has chosen not to adhere to the grid for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Looking at his choices here is quite interesting, as there’s quite a few places where elements are placed just a tiny bit off-kilter with the grid, especially when it comes to the fare boundary around the city limits.

I do really like Dmitry’s treatment of the River Tiber and the sea: the little boat off-shore is a lovely little icon, and the overall texture of the water is very pleasing. I also really appreciate that he’s created his own typeface for the map– dubbed Tiberino Sans – and that he’s used the classical inscriptions found on the monuments of Rome as his inspiration. This can lead to some dissonance between the “trajanesque” capital letters and the slightly condensed lower case characters, especially with the capital “Q” and “N” which are very wide in comparison. Overall though, it’s a nice, clean, modern typeface which suits the aesthetics of the map well.

Our rating: I feel like there’s a really nice diagram trying to break free of the limitations of the page format here. Still nicely readable and visually interesting. Three-and-a-half stars.

See also: The 2015 official ATAC map of rail transit in Rome.

Source: Dmitry’s portfolio website