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New York Subway Map (1972) |
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Author(s):
Massimo Vignelli |
Institution:
MTA |
Year:
1972 |
URL:
http://tinyurl.com/h5ct8 |
Project Description:
In 1972, the renowned Italian designer Massimo Vignelli redesigned George Salomon's New York Subway map, which persisted until 1979, when superseded by Michael Hertz's design.
It was a marvelous conceptual map, and it was easy to read. It was a tool for navigating the subways, although not one for navigating the city streets. Out with the complicated tangle of geographically accurate train routes. No more messy angles. Instead, train lines would run at 45 and 90 angles only. Each line was represented by a color. Each stop represented by a dot. There was an obvious influence from the London Underground map, originally created by Harry Beck in 1933, however, Vignelli took it one step farther, in creating the now-famous intertwined wiring-diagram map of New York's vastly complicated subway lines.
The result was a design solution of surprising beauty. However, Massimo Vignelli reached a level of abstraction that quickly ran into problems. To make the map work graphically meant that a few geographic liberties had to be taken. For instance, Vignelli's map represented Central Park as a square, when in fact it is three times as long as it is wide. It is said that Vignelli had planned a second, complementary map that would have been more tied to the actual above-ground geography, but the city never let him do it.
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Comments (11):
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I am searching for a way to purchase the vintage original maps 1972 and 1979. How can I do this???
Posted by C. Boyd on Sep 2, 2007 at 7:29 PM (GMT)
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I am also interested in buying the old maps, especially the 1972 Vignelli subway map. Any one know where to get one?
Posted by D. W. Erewolf on Oct 24, 2007 at 5:21 PM (GMT)
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I would like to get the 1972 & 1979 maps also, or something with a depiction of them (mug, postcard).
Where??
Posted by maggie on Oct 25, 2007 at 5:48 PM (GMT)
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try ebay. i found mine there.
Posted by n on Oct 26, 2007 at 3:21 PM (GMT)
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Here you go, from the NYC Transit Museum store.
Posted by Justin on Dec 11, 2007 at 9:28 PM (GMT)
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The above doesn't look like a legit link, but it is. You can also try http://transitmuseumstore.com and looking under Posters and Photographs, then Archive Map Prints.
Posted by Justin on Dec 11, 2007 at 9:32 PM (GMT)
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The Conde Nast Store has also reposted the update of the Vignelli map...
http://www.condenaststore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=23306
The best link for the maps from the Transit Museum is
http://www.transitmuseumstore.com/maps
the museum also recently posted archive photo reproductions...
http://www.transitmuseumstore.com/archive
Posted by Darren on Aug 14, 2008 at 4:14 AM (GMT)
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i think perhaps that harry beck's influence on vignelli is understated here...
especially since it was beck's initial genius to only use 45 and 90 degree angles.
in fact, beck himself was inspired by circuit board diagrams!
and the point was that the map didn't tell you anything about aboveground; it's purpose was an efficient representation of how to navigate the underground...---
from hugo
www.obstructiontheory.com
Posted by hugo on Sep 22, 2008 at 10:59 PM (GMT)
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There are a couple of these on sale on eBay now, current as of 7/17/2009.
Posted by William Jackson on Jul 14, 2009 at 7:14 PM (GMT)
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Like this
Posted by John on May 26, 2010 at 12:01 PM (GMT)
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This design is so much better than the current and newly re-designed map. I don't know how many hours I've spent squinting at today's map in the stations and on the train. The 70s map just makes sense instantly.
Posted by oldhat on May 29, 2010 at 5:43 AM (GMT)
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