All posts tagged: Dennis McClendon

Historical/Unofficial Map: SF Muni Frequency Map, 1982 by Dennis McClendon

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Historical Maps, Unofficial Maps

Sent my way by Dennis, who says: Today’s offering is spurred by news of a new Muni map showing frequency of service. Here’s the one I created for personal amusement in 1982. As you can see, the technology was a bit more primitive: Rapidograph technical pens, a calligraphy pen, and crepe-paper tape on tracing paper.  The rest of the page (of a visitors guide I made for friends) was typewritten. Transit Maps says: Nice and simple – […]

Historical Maps: Rail Transit in North America, 1984 by Dennis McClendon

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Historical Maps

I thought I was all done with “to scale” maps of North American rail systems, but then Dennis McClendon (see previous posts from him) sent in this beautiful series of maps that he produced for Planning magazine back in 1984. Dennis himself says: Given this week’s Tumblr theme, I thought you might be interested in these maps that I did in 1984, when I worked for Planning magazine. The “new wave” of modern light rail […]

Video: Making Vitreous Enamel Wayfinding Signage

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Miscellany

As an aside to the last post about the 1983 Chicago CTA map, Dennis also sent along this fun little “How It’s Made” video about the process used to create signs such as this. In the case of the CTA signs, the background blue would be the second layer applied to the steel signboard, and white and black would be the two screen printed colours that are then fired and fused permanently to the backing. […]

Submission – Historical Map: Chicago CTA Rapid Transit Map, 1983

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Historical Maps

Submitted by our resident repository of Chicago transit map knowledge, Dennis McClendon, who says: This map of Chicago’s rapid transit network originated in the 1970s (this one is from June 1983), and this style was used until routes received color names in 1993. Happily, by that time digital printing in fiberglass-embedded signs made full-color maps easier to place in graffiti-prone environments. These maps were silk-screened onto [blue] color blanks, and every color of ink added […]

Submission – Historical Map: Chicago Regional Transportation Authority, 1977

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Historical Maps

Submitted by Dennis McClendon, who has previously submitted material related to transit mapping in Chicago that I’ve featured on the site. This map is a real beauty, and I definitely appreciate Dennis’ ability to talk about the technical aspects of cartography in the days before computers. We take computer-aided design almost completely for granted today – but map-making was a laborious, manually performed task back then, where a scalpel, a light box and rubylith film […]

Behind the Scenes: Evolution of the Chicago CTA Rail Map from 1996-2006 and Beyond

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Historical Maps

This material was sent to me via email by Dennis McClendon, who runs Chicago CartoGraphics, a design firm in the Windy City that specialises in maps and information graphics. His email – which outlines his role in the development of the Chicago “L” map as used in the CTA system map brochure (the first link on this page) – is so fascinating that I’m basically reproducing it in its entirety below. In effect, Dennis is Transit […]