Milan Metro Line 1

Bob 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 always in view as the train slows. The lettering is his own hand-drawn variant of Helvetica, now known as Noorda. The project won the Compasso d'Oro in 1964, and New York drew on it when it hired Noorda and Massimo Vignelli to sort out its own subway signs. Newer lines and later maintenance have departed from the original scheme in places, so it rewards a look before more of it changes.