All posts tagged: Maxwell Roberts

The 2022 “Transit Maps” Gift Guide!

November 17, 2022
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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 […]

On That “Most Complex Subway Map” Article

March 1, 2016
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Thanks to everyone (and I do mean everyone!) who has sent the recent “The World’s Most Complex Subway Maps as Determined by Scientists!” article to me – from various sources, including this take from CityLab.  However, when I read the full academic paper that all these articles are based on, I think that everyone’s got the wrong end of the stick. The study is not of map complexity at all, but of network complexity.  The methodology outlined […]

Before and After – Karlsruhe’s Transit Map Goes All Curvy!

January 26, 2016
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Official Maps
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Big news out of Germany, where Karlsruhe’s KVV becomes one of the first European transit agencies to adopt a fully curvilinear diagram instead of the almost ubiquitous octolinear “Beck-style” diagram. The new map is shown here, with the old map for comparison beneath it.  The old one is a solid, well-executed map, very much in the usual German style of transit map design – although perhaps a little too indistinguishable from many other very similar […]

Unofficial Map: Chicago “El” in the Style of Frank Lloyd Wright by Maxwell Roberts

November 29, 2015
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Words cannot express just how much I love this beautiful, beautiful map by Maxwell Roberts, whose work I’ve featured on the blog many times previously. I had the privilege of seeing this map “in the flesh” at the New York Transit Museum event I attended earlier this month, and it looks even more impressive as an actual print. The map is inspired by the work of the famous architect and designer, Frank Lloyd Wright – most […]

2015 “Transit Maps” Holiday Gift Guide – Books!

November 25, 2015
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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 […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Radial Map of Rail Services in Potsdam, Germany

October 12, 2015
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Submitted by Milan, who says: I’m from Germany and wanted to share this map of my hometown’s streetcar/light rail system I created this week. I wanted to share it with you before my thirteenth birthday, which is tomorrow (October 12). Greetings from Potsdam. Happy birthday, Milan! It’s just about to roll over to the 12th here in Portland, Oregon, so I hope you’re having a great day!  I really like your map, which reminds me […]

Historical Map: Beck-style Greater London Tube/Rail Map (c. 1940s?)

February 25, 2015
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Here’s something via Chris Applegate on Flickr, where Chris says: Finally put up and framed the gorgeous vintage Tube map I won in a competition yonks ago. It is gorgeous, but it’s not just a Tube map, nor is it anything I’ve ever actually seen before.  It appears to be a Greater London Tube Map/main line railway diagram produced in a Beck-like style – a precursor to this 1988 “London Connections” map (May 2013, 3 stars) […]

Unofficial Maps: Maxwell Roberts’ Variants on the Boston MBTA Map

November 15, 2014
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Thanks to pretty much the entire Internet for sending me a link to Boston Magazine’s story about Maxwell Roberts’ work on alternate MBTA “T” maps. I’m not going to review them all, but I would recommend that you click through and evaluate them yourself. Personally, the rotated hexalinear version shown above is my favourite.* What I’m interested in talking about is Roberts’ approach to transit map design. Whereas most designers will automatically gravitate to a […]

Recreated Historical Map: East Berlin S-Bahn, 1980 by Maxwell Roberts

April 12, 2014
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What does noted alternate transit map designer Maxwell Roberts do when he comes across a rare postcard version of the East Berlin S-Bahn network from 1980? He takes a photo of it, and then recreates it using modern design tools, of course. Remember that the S-Bahn was still operated by the GDR even in West Berlin, although West Berliners boycotted the service for the most part, preferring their own U-Bahn network. The Staatsgrenze (state border) totally dominates […]

Unofficial Map: Circular Sydney Suburban Railways by Maxwell Roberts

August 28, 2013
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I have to admit: I’m still not entirely convinced by either the usability or the aesthetics the new “circular transit maps” design trend. However, I think I’ll make an exception for this diagram of my hometown of Sydney, Australia, which is… just beautiful. Designed by the man at the vanguard of this design movement, Maxwell Roberts, this map actually has a lot of visible advantages over the current official Sydney rail map (Sept. 2012, 3.5 […]