New Subway Signs Costing $800K

Photo via triborough's flickr

With so many changes happening in the system, NYC Transit is replacing 3,000 signs and 25,000 maps by a June 28th deadline, the same day trains like the V and W will become extinct. John Montemarano, director of the station signage division, told the NY Times, “We make sure our customers can wake up on June 28 and figure out how the hell to get around.”

The cost of averting confusion is expected to be around $800,000, and the Crown Heights shop that's been working on the signs told their employees no vacations until July in order to create everything from stickers to porcelain signs by the deadline. One worker spoke to NYC Transit being a holy grail, and told the paper, “You don’t pass up a job like this." While Helvetica is the official typeface of the system, wouldn't it be fun to change it up with, say, a little Comic Sans? No?

Don't expect the old signs to show up at Billy's Antiques, they're set to be donated to the city’s transit archives or sold online.

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By Jen Carlson in News on May 10, 2010 3:05 PM

Comments [rss]

John Clavis

Fuck you, MTA. I use the W every day. Nobody is traveling from Queens through Manhattan to Brooklyn on the N at 9 in the morning, but a lot of people are going downtown.

Kevin Walsh

I wish the MTA would return to the Standard font used on the original Unimark signage -- it's not as ubiquitous as Helvetica and has more character.

www.forgotten-ny.com

fixer

Not to burst your bubble, but the recently released Unimark "bio" has Vignelli stating that Unimark wanted Helvetica from Day 1. What happened is that in the first batch of signage, the MTA cheaped out (No!) and used the already-owned Standard. Unimark pressed the issue and got their Helvetica. Unimark also wanted white on black signage, whereas the first MTA batch was a mix including black on white. Last, early signs had a contrasting horizontal colored bar painted across the top of the rectangular signs, misinterpreting Unimark's designs where that "bar" was just supposed to represent the separate hanging hardware, not a painted line across the top. Great book if you're into 60s and 70s corporate branding.