The New York Underground Map
In 1972 Massimo Vignelli was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transport Authority to create a new map for the New York Subway after they were impressed by his stylised and bold work on the New York Subway and Washington Metro signage, and also the American Airlines branding. Vignelli came back quickly to the M.T.A with this map and it was quickly distributed around the city to the anger of many of the local residents. For them, this map strayed way too far from the norm. The train lines were all at angles from each other, Central Park was depicted as square when it’s actually rectangular and for crying out loud, the water was beige! It can be said that this design was not much liked by the public although many designers such as Michael Beirut took a very large liking to its clean, rigorous design. The main problem with the poster was not in fact Vignelli’s fault, it was the M.T.A’s.
Vignelli had worked under extreme time conditions to get this poster ready in time but he also made three other posters which were all meant to accompany the single one that was used. There was a map for the local area, another more geographically correct map and a poster that told people how to get to any given station on any line. To the left is an example of the worded poster. Vignelli had intended the whole time that these posters be released as a series but the M.T.A overlooked this and it was the cause of most of the outcry. The poster they used was too modernist to the public that might not have been used to that design concept being used in general design. It was almost an impressionist view of looking at the city which unfortunately not everyone understood and/or appreciated which is a shame as it is a fantastic example of taking an old ‘proper’ way of doing things and turning it into something completely new.
After watching a video of Vignelli commenting on his map design, he points out one major flaw that he made. For inspiration, he turned to the 1933 map of the London Underground by Harry Beck which is shown here. This style of map is still used to this day in London with no confusion or complaints. Both maps contain different coloured lines for each track, both have dots to represent a station with the name next to it and all the lines are at geometric angles to each other. The main difference being that, apart from the river Thames, there is no geographical indicators on the map; no parks, no roads and no signs telling you areas. This is where the maps differ. On the New York one, Vignelli added place names such as Manhattan, The Bronks, Queens, and added central park and the rivers. This made the New York public very because they were used to, and knew very well the grid layout of the city and that seemed to have changed that.
The sign was soon replaced in 1979 after much public outcry but it will always live on as an example of a piece of design that for some people was so interesting and revolutionary, but to others was just a step too far from the norm.
