Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Johnston (typeface)Johnston (typeface)Edward Johnston's 1916 alphabet for the Underground is where modern transit lettering starts. Frank Pick, the Underground Group's commercial manager, commissioned it in 1913 to help unify the company's look, and although it was meant for print, it quickly moved onto the enamel station signs. That…0
  2. 2Tube mapTube mapHarry Beck's 1933 diagram The map every other subway diagram is measured against. Beck, an engineering draftsman from the Underground's signals office, sketched it as a spare-time project in 1931, borrowing the logic of the electrical circuit diagrams he drew at work. Stations hang on straight…0
  3. 3Road signs in the United KingdomRoad signs in the United KingdomJock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert's road signs, from 1958 Proof that a road sign system can be rigorous and warm at once. Their first signs went up on the Preston bypass in 1958, and the Worboys committee then carried the approach across every British road under regulations that took effect in…0
  4. 4Milan Metro Line 1Milan Metro Line 1Bob Noorda's 1964 signage, with stations by Franco Albini and Franca Helg Noorda solved a problem every rider knows: glancing out of a moving train and not knowing where you are. He ran a colored band along the platform walls and repeated the station name on it every five meters, so the name is…0
  5. 5Rail AlphabetRail AlphabetKinneir and Calvert's second great system, this time for the railway. When British Rail rebranded in 1965, the Design Research Unit adopted their Rail Alphabet for all lettering other than printed matter: station signs, trackside signs and train interiors alike. How far it traveled is the best…0
  6. 6Mexico City MetroMexico City MetroLance Wyman's 1969 signage and station icons The system that showed a station can be recognized without reading its name. Wyman, fresh from the 1968 Olympics graphics, gave every station a pictogram drawn from its name or local history, alongside a color and a number for each line and a custom…0
  7. 7New York City Transit Authority (2014)New York City Transit Authority (2014)Published Jan 1, 2014The 1970 manual by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda of Unimark, reissued in 2014 The rulebook behind the signs New Yorkers still read every day. The Transit Authority brought in Vignelli and Noorda in the 1960s to sort out confusing underground signs, and their answer was a modular system of panels…0
  8. 8New York City Subway mapNew York City Subway mapMassimo Vignelli and Joan Charysyn's 1972 diagram, and its 2025 successor The most loved and most argued-over subway map ever made. Unimark's 1972 diagram used clean geometry and bold color, and it gave up geographical accuracy for clarity. Many New Yorkers disliked how it distorted the city…0
  9. 9DOT pictogramsDOT pictogramsYou have followed these symbols even if you have never heard of them. In 1974 the US Department of Transportation asked AIGA for one standard set of pictures for travelers, and Roger Cook and Don Shanosky drew them after surveying pictograms already in use around the world, from Tokyo's airport to…0
  10. 10Washington MetroWashington MetroLance Wyman and Bill Cannan's map, with Massimo Vignelli's Helvetica signs Two famous designers, one system, and a real argument between them. Wyman and Cannan drew the stylized route map that stresses routes, transfers and landmarks over distance, while Vignelli, through Unimark, designed the…0