New York City Transit Authority (2014)

The 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 that could be combined into any sign the subway needed, with set rules for type, color and hierarchy. That system endures in every station today. Designers Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth found an original copy in a Pentagram basement and reissued it in full through a Kickstarter that raised more than $800,000, so this is the one entry you can put on a bookshelf.