As you may have heard by now, the Art Lebedev Studio entry will become the new official Moscow Metro map at the end of February. It beat out the other two entries convincingly, garnering 52% of the popular vote. Of particular interest to me, though, is the design process page for the map on their website: a fascinating look at the hard work and effort that goes into making a world-class transit map. Concepts are […]
I’ve definitely witnessed people looking at the real map as if it resembled this – or worse. Source: adamjamesturnbull/Flickr
Via typeworship: This week London sees the 150th anniversary of the London Underground. To commemorate the occasion a stream locomotive used in the 19th century made a journey through the modern tunnels of the Metropolitan line. See more on the BBC It is also 100 years since its iconic typeface Johnston Sans was released as the the ‘Underground’ typeface. Dan Rhatigan, type director at Monotype and forthcoming interviewee of 8 Faces talks about Edward Johnston and the typeface here. The structured, based on a calligraphic nib held […]
Here’s a question from an anonymous follower, who asks: “Is it good or bad to depict lines under construction on subway maps?” In my opinion, if the line is actually under construction, then it’s definitely a good thing to show it. It gets users acquainted with the new line before it opens and generates interest. How you show it is up to you – dashed lines are the usual way, although advances in printing mean […]
Matt Johnson sends these photos of great ads that use a subway map theme that he saw in the Montreal Metro on a recent trip. The interesting thing here is that these aren’t created by an ad agency riffing off the subway map theme, but are produced by the transit agency (the Société de transport de Montréal or STM) themselves, as informational ads regarding public transport and upcoming popular events. The ads have a nice […]
Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s an amazing resource for those of you interested in trains or 1960s corporate design. The Doublearrow website showcases almost the entire British Rail Corporate Identity Manual… not just its original 1965 release, but also additions and amendments released throughout the years, all the way up to 1985. This comprehensive document covers just about every aspect of the BR identity, from the symbol and typefaces through station signage, vehicle livery […]
Hey, everyone! I’m thrilled to be able to share some news with you that I just heard about! My U.S. Highways as Subway Map has been accepted for inclusion in the inaugural edition of the NACIS Atlas of Design. There were 150 entries, and only 27 maps – all by different creators – have been accepted, so you can see why I’m excited about this! The Atlas itself promises to be superb, as evidenced by […]
Slightly tangential to my usual posts, but cool nonetheless. The Metrobits.org website showcases around 170 Metro logos (and other train systems as well – Sydney’s CityRail is most decidedly not a Metro, but is shown) all one page. As you might expect, there’s a lot of variations on the letter “M”!
Wow. Just wow. These amazing transit maps of early 20th Century Berlin are just a few samples of the maps that can be found at the BerlinerVerkehr website – an absolute treasure trove that transit geeks like me can easily lose hours to. Five stars for this collection, obviously! All of these maps are of interest, but there’s a few things that really stand out: The “Hoch-und Untergrundbahn” logo used on the 1914 and 1918 […]
Clever work here from the German office of Ogilvy Advertising, taking the familiar iconography of a typical German-styled U-Bahn map and applying it — and its associated promises of rapid, frequent service — to the Germany-wide ICE (high-speed train) network. My only problem with this work is that the shape of the network bears little resemblance to Germany itself, probably because of the landscape format of the bilboard. Source: Viralbuzz.de and Design Made in Germany
