Following on from last Sunday's post, I thought I'd do something about the maps. Most maps fall into two categories: diagrammatic and representational. The obvious examples of each are the London Underground and New York Subway maps, respectively. I think that good information graphics should be clear and concise. Is it really necessary to know the geography above ground to make sense of a tube map? The unfortunate thing is, a few years ago they had a really great map by Massimo Vignelli but it was ditched in favour of the current one. There are now attempts to have a version by KICK Design adopted.
You can see Vignelli talk about his design on www.helveticafilm.com.
A good article here about subway map design on the Johnson Banks website.
Information Architects, a Tokyo-based brand agency, have created an web-trends map based on the Tokyo Metro map. They have even created a clickable online version.
All the subway maps of the world can be viewed here.
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