Here’s another fantastic old transit diagram taken from the pages of the 1974 Graphis Diagrams annual (see also this concept Helsinki Metro map). This minimalist diagram of Rotterdam’s transit was designed by the firm Tel Design, who were also responsible for the corporate identity of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS or Dutch Railways) in the 1960s. The creative director, Gert Dumbar, formed his own design studio in 1977 and continued to do work for NS through the 1980s, creating the visual language of the railway which is still very evident today.

The diagram uses a clear colour-based visual hierarchy: black and the NS logo for main line rail. blue for the Metro (at the time, the only one in the Netherlands), and red for trams and buses. I think black numbers are for trams and red numbers are for buses, but I could be wrong. Points of interest get white numbers in black boxes, and are explained at the bottom of the map.

There’s a very pleasant simplicity to the whole thing, although it’s perhaps missing a few too many contextual cues to be truly useful – street names, etc. Still, it’s a lovely example of classic mid-1970s Dutch minimalist design and worth a look.

Source: design et typo