Hey Cameron. It was so interesting to stumble upon a fantasy map of Vitória, Brazil on Transit Maps. The story was very touching to me — just like Frederico, I also moved away from Vitória, and also made a fantasy map of its transit network as a way to connect back to a city I still care so much.
My project was supposed to be more artistic than accurate in any way. I finished it last January, and my ultimate goal was just to have a map that my close friends could hang in their walls :).
As a San Francisco resident, BART was my main inspiration for the way the map is composed. Vitória is an island, so its geographic aspects felt as important as it does to the Bay Area.
It’s very interesting to compare my end result to Frederico’s approach. While I didn’t use any of the proposed BRT lines as a reference, there’s a lot of similarities. Also, we both revived the extinguished waterways that Vitória had with its neighbor cities by keeping the old stations.
One particular aspect that I think is worth mentioning, is how I’ve included in the diagram a line that covers the island surroundings. Thinking about the social and political aspects of such line, it would probably be the hardest part to put out of this fantasy map, as it directly connects very poor neighborhoods like Andorinhas to rich parts of the city like Praia do Canto.
Transit Maps says:
Until Frederico submitted his fantasy map last week, I had barely even heard of Vitória, so to have two fantasy maps of it submitted in such short time is kind of awesome… and both created by ex-pats as a reminder of home. How wonderful!
Vinicius’ map is very colourful and stylish, helped along by a bright palette and what looks very much like the Toronto Subway’s Art Deco-styled corporate typeface. It’s rather lovely, and looks great set in all caps, something I’m not always in favour of.
The balance between stylised route lines and geographical grounding is deftly handled: there’s a real sense of place to this map, and Vitória’s island nature is illustrated nicely.
A few minor points: the way the purple “V” line integrates with the other lines at Andorinhas is a little awkward: there should be a simpler solution than this.
The station dots at Jardim Limoeiro are the only set that aren’t at a standard angle: this wouldn’t be a problem in itself as they’re just following the curve of the lines around the corner. However, it’s unfortunate that the dots are so close to the dashed grey line below it, as this really highlights the non-standard angle.
Finally, the southern end of the apple green “L” line seems to extend too far past the terminus station in comparison to other line ends.
All in all, a very attractive and stylish fantasy map. Great work!