Vignelli Transit Maps
Peter B. Lloyd, Mark Ovenden
RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press (Dicembre, 2012)
Nel 1972 l’MTA, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, affidò a Massimo Vignelli il redesign della mappa della metropolitana di New York, che rimase in vigore fino al 1979, quando fu sostituita dal nuovo progetto su disegno di Michael Hertz.
Vignelli realizzò una mappa concettuale assolutamente nuova, semplice e di facile lettura. Uno strumento chiaro per navigare la metropolitana, che si distaccava dal groviglio complicato di tratte disegnate sulle carte geografiche, precedentemente in uso. Le linee ferroviarie si diramano a 45 e a 90 gradi, ogni linea è rappresentata e distinta da un colore che la identifica, mentre le fermate sono rappresentate e schematizzate da un punto. Evidente è l’influenza esercitata in questo design, dalla mappa della metropolitana di Londra, originariamente disegnata da Harry Beck nel 1931. Vignelli però si è spinto oltre, realizzando un diagramma chiaro che andava a mappare il complicato intreccio di linee della metropolitana newyorkese. Un risultato di sorprendente bellezza.
Tale livello di astrazione, tuttavia, presentò successivamente alcuni problemi. Per far funzionare graficamente la mappa, infatti, Vignelli adottò alcune schematizzazioni geografiche (ad esempio, Central Park era indicato come un quadrato, quando in realtà è tre volte più lungo che largo) e nel 1979 la sua mappa venne ritirata e sostituita.
Oggi la mappa è diventata un oggetto di culto per i newyorkesi e attraverso la pubblicazione di Peter B. Lloyd e Mark Ovenden edita dal RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, è stata studiata e ricostruita dettagliatamente la sua storia, riportandola alla memoria e fornendone una straordinaria documentazione di progetto.
“For a long time, New York communication culture has been afflicted by a fragmentation disease, where verbal rather than visual information, has had the priority. When I had the assignment of designing the New York subway map, this was the situation: fragmentation. In any case, the map was done and it turned out to be beautiful, but nevertheless short-lived.
This book investigates its history, revealing interesting details about its demise…and is also an opportunity to celebrate the work done a long time ago by my associates. I feel it is important from a historical point of view to establish the proper credits to all who have made contributions to our design for the New York subway diagrams”.
Massimo Vignelli
Vignelli Transit Maps
Peter B. Lloyd, Mark Ovenden
RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press (December, 2012)
In 1972, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority renowned, commissioned to the Italian designer Massimo Vignelli the redesigned of 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. 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 1931, 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) and in 1979 it was substituted.
Today, the map has become an object of worship for New York and through the publication of Peter B. Lloyd and Mark Ovenden published by RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, has been studied and reconstructed in detail its history, bringing back it to the memory with an extraordinary project documentation.
(Aiap)
(19 Feb 2013 )
18 January 2021
