A Design Classic: Updated

When Massimo Vignelli re-defined the New York Subway signage in the early 70's, he also provided a matching map, which can only be described as an abstract piece of public art. In my opinion, his original map was great...almost perfect. It matched the (then new) Helvetica-clad signs throughout the system, and more importantly, tied together the system with a common visual identity. Sure, it lacked real geographic accuracy, but who cares!



The NY Times has a great article about how Men's Vogue has commissioned Mr.Vignelli to update his design to match the system as of 2008 (which includes deleting, changing and adding lines- like the new AirTrain). They have an "OK" version of it on their site for viewing, but if you want the real deal, you need to pony up $300 for one of 500 limited edition prints.



I am really in love with this map. Especially compared to the current Subway Map disaster:



Though, it's also worth mentioning this map, which was linked to in the Times article:


The above is an indy map made by Kick Design, Inc, which seems to me to be an interesting combination of the two maps above....it's not perfect (seems a little heavy and "chunky" to me), but it would be a nice breath of fresh air from 'THE MAP'.

Color and Typography in Good Design

Great Article from ColourLovers:

Color and Typography in Good Design

[ARTICLE] Creativity: Born with it, or work hard to get it?

I ran across this article, where Brady Russell (indie cartoonist and blogger) goes in detail about his "theory on creativity". To paraphrase, his main points are that he can spot an artist's "style" even by looking at their early childhood sketchbooks, and that this style is carried over to adulthood. So no matter how hard you work to improve yourself (he's not arguing that you don't improve yourself), you retain this "style", or rather, the characteristics of your style are visible in your earliest drawings. He also stresses that the most successful artists (or people in their respective fields) are born extremely creative, and "no amount of practice or conditioning can help those who simply aren't 'born with it' ".

I didn't read too many of the comments for this article, but quite a few people don't agree, someone named Von Allen being one. Here is a reply from Brady Russell, addressing Von Allen and several other comments at once.

As for myself, I think that yes, there are people born innately creative and talented. People you want to kick in the stomach because they just rock your mind with how brilliant they are. But, I also think that talent will take you no where fast unless you work hard and get better at it. Sure, I know plenty of talented artists, but they don't apply themselves, are not motivated, and never practice or have the desire to make something of this talent they possess. I think if you are actually born with talent, you should definitely use it. Because it's a fucking shame if you don't.

I was born with the ability to draw. Being artistic and creative runs in my family: that being said, I had to work hard and practice and learn to get where I am today. I drew stick figures with the best of them. As time passed, I developed a better control over my medium and honed in on my artistic skills. It's an on-going process. And I can only go up from here.

What are your thoughts?

Sound off

Branding the ubiquitous yellow cab in New York mus have been a daunting task. The New York times City Room blog had a feature today inviting several designers to take on the critique of the new NYC Taxi logo. It is interesting to read the designers takes on something that is so fundamental to the cityscape here in New York.

I agree with that the new logo typeface for NYC is horrendous. It is one step away from being illegible. I also think that the T in the circle is too close to the Subway logos and signage. Since taxis are not part of the MTA why would you equate them. Will tourists start to think that you can swipe your Metro card for a cab ride?

Partners Sound off! I want to hear what you have to say about the new logo.

Full Post on NYTimes.com

Simplicity, in Practice is Hard

I was trolling my old links and I came across this post from iA last year that has a new relevance since my company is going to undertake the revamping of it's institution website this year. The current website is a messy behemoth, with subsites living on the same URL with completely different branding and running on a template and architecture that was built in 2001. In internet years, that might as well be the Bronze Age.

In starting to think about the new architecture and the types of needs that the many different programs at IIE need, I go back to the tug of too many audiences to please. On the current site, we are over loaded with copy that no one reads. It is always taken from the print bloated Annual Report. I would love to get the PR team here to think more about the online branding a part of the core identity of the organization and not a superfluous accessory. After, all the the website gets upwards of 400,000 hits a month. This is no small amount.

"Simple websites are easy to use, easy to understand, nice to look at. In practice, websites are either unusable or ugly and in general filled with too many complicated words. Why do designers have such a hard time to keep it simple?"

Read the post by Oliver Reichenstein, Simple Is Best