All posts tagged: typography

Historical Map: Bay Area Regional Transit Connections, 1981

May 13, 2019
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Submitted by Calley, who says: This was found via the /r/BayArea subreddit. It appears to be an authentic transit map from September 1981 still hanging in the 12th Street Oakland City Center BART station! It’s published by an entity I’ve never heard of called the “Regional Transit Association.” On your blog I’ve previously seen a very clumsy and messy map that attempted to show the myriad transit systems of the Bay, including rail and connecting […]

Official Map: Integrated Mobility Map of Mexico City, 2019

April 17, 2019
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I’ve had quite a few requests to review this new map out of Mexico City, so here goes… The first thing to note is that Lance Wyman, the designer of the original Mexico City Metro logo and much of the design language of that system (the original station icons and the distinctive Tipo Metro typeface, for example) was involved in this work, though I’m not certain as to what extent. Certainly, the Movilidad Integrada “MI” […]

Historical Map: Adelaide Metropolitan Rail Transport System, c. 1978

January 15, 2018
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Sent my way on Twitter by Cameron Coy, this diagram of rail services radiating out from central Adelaide in South Australia isn’t anything special… except for the wonderfully and unashamedly late 1970s typography, with ITC Souvenir Bold deployed in all its curvaceous, tightly letter-spaced glory. I particularly like its use for the main Adelaide station, where the letterforms across the large station circle (intentionally?) evoke the famous London Underground roundel. It’s interesting to note all […]

Project: 1989 East Berlin Bahnhofsübersicht Map Digital Recreation

April 30, 2017
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Historical Maps, My Transit Maps
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I've long admired this fascinating map of the railway network in and around East Berlin, produced at the tail end of the Cold War in 1989. As is usual, I decided to redraw it in Adobe Illustrator to see what makes it tick.

Project: 1954 Manhattan Rapid Transit Flow Diagram Digital Recreation

January 17, 2017
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Historical Maps, My Transit Maps, Prints Available, Visualizations
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I’ve long admired this beautiful 1954 flow diagram of subway service into Manhattan during the morning peak hour, so I set myself the personal challenge of recreating it using modern design tools (Adobe Illustrator) while still staying true to the original principles of the map. While it was certainly possible to just trace the source material in Illustrator with the pen tool and end up with a decent facsimile of the original, there’s really nothing to […]

Unofficial Map: The Alaska Marine Highway Highway by Daniel Huffman

December 14, 2016
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Submitted by Daniel, who says: The Alaska Marine Highway System is (to an outsider like me) super confusing. Their website has a map, but it doesn’t indicate which ferries connect which towns. But, this information is vital if you want to book passage — it appears to me that you can’t simply select two towns and hope that the system will route you along multiple ships; you have to know exactly which route and connection […]

Video: “Überlin” Music Video by R.E.M.

September 18, 2016
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Found on the band’s official YouTube channel, though I don’t think it’s the song’s actual official music video: that would be this one.  The song – from R.E.M.’s last studio album, Collapse Into Now – literally references Berlin and the U-Bahn, but isn’t anything remarkable by the band’s high standards, and the motion graphics are fairly average as well. However, I will give them full credit for using FF Transit – the typeface actually designed […]

Video: New “Johnston100″ Typeface Family by Monotype

June 14, 2016
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For Johnston Sans’ 100th birthday, TfL has commissioned Monotype to redraw the typeface, bringing the design back closer to its original roots in many respects. Going forward, it will be this cut that will be used on all new TfL signage, maps and collateral. The redraw also introduces two new weights – Thin and Hairline – that I remain unconvinced by. I suspect they’ve been added for online usage and advertising purposes, but they just […]

Official Map: KC Streetcar, Kansas City, Missouri, 2016

May 6, 2016
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America’s latest modern streetcar line opens today (May 6th, 2016) in Kansas City, Missouri, running approximately two miles north from Union Station to the River Market district. To go with the new system, there’s also this spiffy new map, which will be mounted at stops along the route, as seen in this great photo taken by Edward Russell. Overall, I like it a lot: it’s clean and simple with just enough detail for users to […]

Reader Question: Can You Identify the Font Used in a 1992 Berlin Map?

March 9, 2016
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Question: Hi there! Thanks so much for your comments on my Berlin 1952 redesign. I’m working on a recreation of a Berlin map from 1992 (I can’t include links, but there’s a few from 1992, 1991, and 1988 floating around Google I believe), and I’m wondering what your advice on font is. I can’t really pick it out by eye and WhatTheFont hasn’t been too helpful. What would you say would be the closest one? FF […]