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Design geeks and subway enthusiasts, time to swoon: Massimo Vignelli, whose beloved and controversial 1972 subway map is in Museum of Modern Art, has updated his map for 2008 for Men's Vogue. Men's Vogue revisited the 1972 map's path:
The plan was as visually utopian as it was elegant — paths running on 45- and 90-degree angles, an understated gray square marking Central Park, and type set in clear Helvetica. It was hailed as an instant classic of graphic design. But it left many feeling stranded. "People expected a map instead of a diagram," Vignelli, 77, says. "But diagrammatic representation is common practice around the world since the London Underground map of the thirties."While the 1972 map show lines like the AA or RR, the 2008 edition gives you the lines you know and love (to hate).
Vignelli also is selling, via Men's Vogue, 500 signed, limited edition prints through Men's Vogue. The proceeds will benefit the Green Worker Cooperatives, the South Bronx non-profit started by Omar Freilla "dedicated to incubating worker-owned and environmentally friendly cooperatives." And we interviewed Michael Hertz, who designed the current subway map, last year.
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I'm sorry, this map still sucks. Not only is it more confusing than the current map, even if it is more readable, but it has Helvetica. Helvetica is an eyesore - and people need to get over it.
I don't like the 45 degree angle used, nor do I like how stops that are part of one station serving several lines aren't necessarily represented as such. In particular, the 53rd St./Lex E/V and 51st St. 6 station is confusing--the stop for the 6 is too high on the line and it looks like you can just walk between the 6 & the V, not the 6 and the V and the E (V & E are on the same tracks).
helvetica is one of the most widely used fonts on earth. it's a terric font, you're just mad because MTV ruined it.
vignelli is also a GREAT designer! his idea of not using scale for the maps was genius!
Thanks, Gothamist for the couple step jump to the "KickMap" post. I hadn't seen that before.
edEx: It's more like George Dow and Harry Beck who you should be praising.. dunno why Vignelli is a genius for recreating an (at the time) 40 year-old design (he acknowledges this in the quote).
i like them as well. but vignelli, isn't just a map/signage draftsman, he designed the American Airlines logo which to this day is the only airline logo that hasn't been redesigned/retooled.
This map is pretty bad. According to it I can take the N to 8th st whenever. It's ugly too.
Kick map is the best and most easy to understand map, then the current map, and this one is a distant 3rd.
men's vogue? wtfit?
aka spagetti map...
sorry voguesters and wannabe's I dont need any limited edition signed copies,
I have my own orginal spagetti map from back in the dayz!
Helvetica > Arial
The design is great and it would be cool to have a Bizarro version of the subway map up in my apartment but $300?! Puh-leez.
Guy doesn't seem to get the hint about his map, does he? I wonder if he'll ever stop tweaking it.
I'm not a fan of the 'black dot in the line' idea for the station icon, I prefer the 'London Underground style white dot with black line larger than the line' design of the existing Subway map. I'm not a huge fan of depicting a line for every train either.
Needs street names.
Now you mention that... the current map probably gives a more accurate idea of the distances from one station to another with it also depicting Manhattan island and major streets.
Modernism with a capital M, and all that goes with it. I'd like the MTA to do a test run of the map just to gauge the reactions of today's straphangers.
The KickMap has the best of both worlds: Vignelli's pragmatism and Tauranac's humanism.
According to the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual (1970), which was the work of Massimo Vignelli, the typeface (at least used on the original) is Standard Medium which is not Helvetica. (Yes, we have a copy and it weighs about ten pounds and was not fun to lug home.)
As for the design, most of the older subway maps (1960s and before) were basically variants on the standard Hagstrom map of the city, so going to something a bit more conceptual was a bit of a stretch. However, the big challenge is getting the dense cluster of lines in Manhattan to balance with the radials of lines in the outer boroughs, plus the fact there isn't anything to the west to provide a counter balance. It is sort of a unique situation.
The current map isn't that bad, although we do like the ones from the 1990s. There is a great book called Transit Maps of the World, which is interesting how good New York's maps have been compared to some other cities.
Now we would really like to see a London Underground style map for New York.
Now we would really like to see a London Underground style map for New York.
I call that a challenge. :)