MTR colour coding

Hong Kong’s railway system (MTR) currently has nine lines, each denoted with a colour. The original system only had three lines with three easy to distinguish colours: red (Tsuen Wan), green (Kwun Tong) and blue (Island). When the system extended to Tseung Kwan O, purple was introduced, then to…

More on MTR signage

I wrote about the use of colours to establish line identities in the MTR system last time. This example shows how…

The state of graphic design?

This type of data graphics have been gaining popularity on the web in the past few years. For better or worse, they have popularised the idea of information design amongst graphic designers. This graphic came through my Facebook news feed this morning, and to me the approach to…

Grid (not the Modernist variety)

Signs at the Hong Kong City Hall. I might be generalising, but this is what graphic designers…

Screenplay typography project: 10 years on

Token machine at the Star Ferry

This is a token machine at the Star Ferry pier. I must commend the ferry company’s good intentions…

Taikoo Shing schematic map

These schematic maps on totem signs are dotted around the Taikoo Shing and Island East developments. In terms of graphic design they are quite elegantly considered, and the schematic approach is a departure from the more common plan view street maps or floor plans. These maps are…

God (or devil) in the details: text typography

Here are some slides from a lecture I give to my typography students on text typography. It demonstrates the dos and don’ts of detail typography in terms of orthography and typographic style, as well as alignment and hyphenation and justification…