Design and the NYC Subway Map

Following his extensive work on the New York City subway signage in the late 1960s, Massimo Vignelli, inspired by Harry Beck’s 1933 London Underground map, simplified New York’s tangled subway map into a clean, readable system. Idsgn writer Skylar examines Vignelli’s map and how the Metropolitan Transit Authority scrapped a true work of art for an over-engineered mess.

“I think the real reason is space. But not because Manhattan is too small, it’s because they want to put too much information that doesn’t belong in the diagram. That’s why. All of a sudden there is …and there is no reason. I mean, all you want to know is [how] to go from A to B,” explained Vignelli at Navigating the Labyrinth, an AIGA/NY event hosted in February.

While it has been criticized for being geographically inaccurate, this was by design. “On purpose we rejected any visual reference to nature or landmarks,” Vigenlli told Men’s Vogue in 2008. “People expected a map instead of a diagram. But diagrammatic representation is common practice around the world since the London Underground map of the thirties.”

Vignelli had actually envisioned the map as a four-part complimentary system: the stylized map providing the basic route information; a geographic map showing the surface and the relationship between the subway and the city; a neighborhood map providing information of the area around the station and surface connections; and a verbal map to provide instruction on how to reach a destination from a particular station.

It’s also worth noting that the original Vignelli map, “has a near-cult following—with vintage maps selling for upwards of $200 on eBay, a place in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, even a designer dress. In 2008, an updated version was commissioned by Men’s Vogue magazine to raise funds for charity.”

Via idsgn.