All posts tagged: graphic design

New Adobe Illustrator “Join Tool” Aids Transit Map Design!

October 17, 2014
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When Adobe Illustrator finally introduced “Live Corners” in January of this year, I was overjoyed. They’d taken one of the most time-consuming and tedious tasks in transit mapping – generating properly nested sets of rounded corners where route lines changed direction – and turned it into something intuitive, quick and 100-percent accurate every time. However, it didn’t solve every problem. Joining two separate paths into one (so that Live Corners could be applied to the […]

Review of my “Highways of the USA” Map by Kenneth Field

October 1, 2014
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My Highways of the USA map got a great write up today by Kenneth Field as part of his “MapCarte” series, where he writes about influential and beautiful maps: one map a day for a whole year. My map was No. 273 in the series, and is one of the very few schematic transit maps featured so far in the series (MapCarte No.1, way back at the beginning of the year was Beck’s original 1933 […]

The Evolution of My Washington, DC Metro Map

August 9, 2014
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My Transit Maps, Unofficial Maps
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Now that I’ve finally brought my DC Metro map fully up to date, I thought it would be interesting to compare all four versions – the first dating back to February 2010, way before the announcement that Lance Wyman would be redesigning the map to accommodate the Silver Line. The first version is unique in that it includes commuter rail and Amtrak lines as well as the Metro lines, shown by a thinner light purple […]

Historical Map: “Visitor’s London” Tourist Map and Guide, 1959

May 30, 2014
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The inset central zone London Underground map is a black and white version of Beck’s diagram from the same year, but really, this is all about the fantastic illustrations (by Peter Roberson) and groovy mid-century graphic design. There’s only two colours used here – black and pink – but they’ve been used in a very striking and eye-catching way. I wonder what was on the reverse of this? Source: smallritual/Flickr

Official Map: Oklahoma City EMBARK Bus Network by Kyril Negoda

May 18, 2014
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mappingtwincities: A Note on the Making of Oklahoma City’s Transit Map I recently had a pleasure of designing a system map for EMBARK, Oklahoma City’s transit agency. The network is being made both more frequent and more direct to meet a growing demand. Oklahoma City is often compared to Austin, Texas for their effort to re-imagine the state’s biggest city to be less car-depended and more human-scale and user-friendly. I’m proud to be a part […]

Historical Map: Working Sketch for 1979 New York Subway Map by Nobu Siraisi

April 8, 2014
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As you might probably guess, I’m not really that fond of the current New York Subway map, although its longevity is certainly to be respected. It was first revealed to the public in 1979, and – despite revisions, service changes and disasters – has remained pretty much the same ever since. However, this preliminary sketch by designer Nobu Siraisi, collaborating with Michael Hertz on that map, is nothing short of delightful. It looks like it […]

Highways Project Print Sample!

April 3, 2014
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I got my first test print back from the printers today: a sample of the Texas map. Basically, I’m ecstatic with the way things are looking – all the research and effort I’ve put into this over the last one-and-a-half years is so, so worth it. Just a few more little behind the scenes things to put into place and I’ll be ready to share this project with you all. Have I mentioned that I’m […]

Submission – Tutorial: Changing the Background Colour of a Text Box

February 12, 2014
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Graphic Fix: Change Background Color of Text Box in Illustrator Problem: My Kentucky Ave label overlaps with objects below it, resulting in a cluttered appearance. Turns out, there is a super easy fix for something like this! Create the Area Text (text box). Select the Area Text with the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow).  In the Appearance panel select desired background fill color and adjust Transparency to your heart’s content.  Your labels should now look […]

Tutorial: Using Illustrator or Photoshop to Check Your Design for Colour-Blind Accessibility

January 21, 2014
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Here’s a simple little trick that works in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS4 and above: You can quickly check your artwork to see how it might appear for a colour-blind user by simply going to the View menu > Proof Setup, then choosing one of the two colour-blind profiles at the bottom of the list. Then select View > Proof Colors (Cmd/Ctrl-Y in Photoshop). As you can see from the GIF above, the results can be […]

Breaking News! Illustrator CC’s “Live Corners” Are AMAZING!

January 17, 2014
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Yesterday, Adobe released updates to many of their Creative Cloud applications, including Illustrator (which is now at version 17.1, if you can believe it!).For me, the absolute standout feature is “Live Corners”, which is a game changer for the design and production of transit maps. Gone are the inconsistent and unpredictable results produced by the “Round Corners” effect, and my trusty but time-consuming workaround – using a set of master curves and manually cutting-and-pasting them into […]