After 2003’s Metro Maps of the World and 2015’s Transit Maps of the World (our review here), this is Mark Ovenden’s third offering on the subject of global transit maps and diagrams. The question to be asked, then, is simply – is a new book on the same subject worth it?
Back after a long hiatus, here’s my comprehensive guide to transit map-related gifty goodness for the transportation lover in your life this holiday season! Jump to the categories: Prints and Posters | Books | Other Gifts & Sites Transit Map Prints and Posters My favourite category, filled with creative original designs and beautiful replica vintage maps from around the world – mainly made by local small businesses that you help support with every purchase. First […]
Transit Maps previously reviewed Blue Crow’s London Underground Architecture and Design Map back in 2017, and they’ve just released two new maps in the series celebrating Paris and New York’s transit systems (there’s also another map in the series for Moscow). As before, the maps are simple but elegant in their execution, with a geographical map of the system on one side and the explanatory text and photos on the other. They come in handsome […]
Blue Crow Media is an independent publisher of beautifully designed city guide maps on many subjects – you may be familiar with their “Brutalist Architecture” series – and this new map is the first in a planned series of maps about public transportation networks around the world. Edited by Mark Ovenden (of Transit Maps of the World fame) with some lovely photos by Will Scott, the map promises to be an authoritative guide to the design and architecture […]
A selection of great books at least tangentially related to transit maps and transit design. A note: some of the links below are Amazon Affiliate links – if you make a purchase after following one of these links, I make a small commission on the sale. An easy way to help support the site! Johnson and Gill: Very British Types by Mark Ovenden. A intertwined history of two of the most recognisable British wayfinding typefaces: […]
About the only thing as good as actual transit maps is books about transit maps (and/or wayfinding design)! Here’s a selection of great reads for the map lover in your life! Transit Maps of the World, November 2015 Edition by Mark Ovenden – a book that needs no further introduction to readers of this blog (My review here). A fantastic update to an already superb book. Buy on Amazon here. London Underground by Design by […]
First published in the United Kingdom as Metro Maps of the World in 2003, this book has long been an indispensable reference book for graphic designers, train aficionados, cartographers, and geeks alike. However, its last major revision was in 2007 – and much has changed in the world of transit map design since then. More transit systems, new maps, revised maps, digital and web-based maps, the rise of the amateur map designer and more. Like […]
As a graphic designer with a keen interest in transit maps and a fairly thorough knowledge of their history and usage, I thought I had a decent understanding of Massimo Vignelli’s diagrammatic version of the New York Subway map, which was used from 1972 to 1979. This outstanding book has proved me almost completely and utterly wrong. So much of what we think we know about the Vignelli map is simply hearsay and legend, repeated […]
I haven’t met Mark, but we have chatted a few times about my work – he had some very kind words about my French TGV Map (see the third comment on this page). Super nice guy, and definitely knows his stuff. His books are a huge part of my interest in transit maps.
