Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story

Shaw, Paul

Hardcover

General DesignTypography & Calligraphy

Publisher Price: $49.95

ISBN10: 026201548X
ISBN13: 9780262015486
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: Feb 11 2011
Pages: 144
Weight: 2.30
Height: 0.76 Width: 11.30 Depth: 9.72
Language: English
Awards: PROSE
How New York City subways signage evolved from a visual mess to a uniform system with Helvetica triumphant.

For years, the signs in the New York City subway system were a bewildering hodge-podge of lettering styles, sizes, shapes, materials, colors, and messages. The original mosaics (dating from as early as 1904), displaying a variety of serif and sans serif letters and decorative elements, were supplemented by signs in terracotta and cut stone. Over the years, enamel signs identifying stations and warning riders not to spit, smoke, or cross the tracks were added to the mix. Efforts to untangle this visual mess began in the mid-1960s, when the city transit authority hired the design firm Unimark International to create a clear and consistent sign system. We can see the results today in the white-on-black signs throughout the subway system, displaying station names, directions, and instructions in crisp Helvetica. This book tells the story of how typographic order triumphed over chaos.

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