Friday Eye Candy: Seven Maps of the NYC Subway

The modernist designer Massimo Vignelli, who created the 1972 version of the New York City Subway map, passed away this week at 83.

1 minute read

May 30, 2014, 5:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


To honor Vignelli's passing, Will Doig presents seven creative and lesser-known versions of the New York City Subway system that fans of transit, maps, and New York City (but not necessarily in that order) will enjoy. A sample of the subway system, as presented in these unique representations:

  • "When the current New York subway map was introduced in 1979, designer Nobu Siraisi quickly recognized what a mess it was around the Atlantic Avenue station in Brooklyn. So Siraisi redrew that section of the map by hand, in a sketch that never made it off the drawing board, but is somehow gorgeous in its simplicity."
  • "For 'I Love NY' in map form, Seoul-based designers Zero Per Zero embeded [sic] New York’s transit system into a heart shape, rendering it cuddlier than it probably has a right to be."
  • The article also includes a video of "the New York subway map as string instrument, using the actual train schedule to create the symphony."

Tuesday, May 27, 2014 in Next City

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