All posts tagged: concept

Historical Maps: Vignelli Washington DC Concepts, 1973 – Part 2

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Historical Maps

vignellicenter: Yesterday we shared some newly uncovered Vignelli designs for the Washington DC Metro subway system. And you were so excited about that we couldn’t resist sharing a few more related items.  Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman). But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards.  […]

Historical Maps: Vignelli Washington DC Concepts, 1973 – Part 1

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Historical Maps

vignellicenter: Found in the archives!  Unrealized DC Metro map designs. Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman).  But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards. We also found some original sketches for the signage! Stay tuned! It’s well known that the signage and wayfinding system for the DC […]

Submission – Historical Map: Proposed Baghdad Metro Map, c. 1981-1984

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Historical Maps

Submitted by peopleneedaplacetogo, who says: The Wikipedia article for “Baghdad Metro” includes this unsourced image of a proposed network map. The way the colours are used in different directions is quite unusual but I guess makes sense if each colour corresponds to a destination (e.g. if destination signs on the front of trains are coloured). Transit Maps says: Hooray for reverse image search, which eventually revealed that this absolutely beautiful diagram was drawn by Richard […]

Historical Concept Map: Circular Berlin U- and S-Bahn Map, c.1990

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Historical Maps

Circular transit diagrams are certainly all the rage at the moment. I’ve reviewed two different takes on London here and here, and Maxwell Roberts’ circular New York diagram is generating a lot of internet buzz at the moment. That’s not to say that it’s a completely new and original concept, however. Harry Beck tried his hand at a circular Underground diagram in 1964, and Berlin’s Ringbahn was abstracted into a perfect circle as far back […]

A Better Denver RTD Strip Map?

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Unofficial Maps

People have already asked me what I’d do to make the Denver RTD strip map better. Well, here’s what I’ve come up with in five minutes flat. Even from this quick little “art director’s sketch”, I’m pretty certain that this concept would work better than the current iteration. Once a transit system is past a certain size or complexity, some level of abstraction on these narrow oddly-shaped strip maps is a necessity. Once the rider is […]