Helvetica and the New York City Subway System

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System
Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780262015486
ISBN-13 : 026201548X
Rating : 4/5 (86 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Helvetica and the New York City Subway System by : Paul Shaw

Download or read book Helvetica and the New York City Subway System written by Paul Shaw and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. The process didn't go smoothly or quickly. At one point New York Times architecture writer Paul Goldberger declared that the signs were so confusing one almost wished that they weren't there at all. Legend has it that Helvetica came in and vanquished the competition. Paul Shaw shows that it didn't happen that way—that, in fact, for various reasons (expense, the limitations of the transit authority sign shop), the typeface overhaul of the 1960s began not with Helvetica but with its forebear, Standard (AKA Akzidenz Grotesk). It wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that Helvetica became ubiquitous. Shaw describes the slow typographic changeover (supplementing his text with more than 250 images—photographs, sketches, type samples, and documents). He places this signage evolution in the context of the history of the New York City subway system, of 1960s transportation signage, of Unimark International, and of Helvetica itself.


Helvetica and the New York City Subway System Related Books

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Paul Shaw
Categories: Design
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-02-11 - Publisher: National Geographic Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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 subw
Helvetica
Language: en
Pages: 262
Authors: Lars Müller
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-01-14 - Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An ode to the beloved typeface Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface. It is simple and clean, and commonly seen in advertising, signage, and literature. The R has
NASA Graphics Standards Manual
Language: en
Pages: 220
Authors: Jesse Reed
Categories: Corporate image
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-09 - Publisher: Thames Hudson

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The NASA Graphics Standards Manual, by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn, is a futuristic vision for an agency at the cutting edge of science and exploration. H
Just My Type
Language: en
Pages: 352
Authors: Simon Garfield
Categories: Reference
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-10-21 - Publisher: Profile Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Just My Type is not just a font book, but a book of stories. About how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. About why Barack Obama opted for Gotham, wh
The Parrot's Theorem
Language: en
Pages: 356
Authors: Denis Guedj
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-08-20 - Publisher: Macmillan

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mr. Ruche, a Parisian bookseller, receives a bequest from a long lost friend in the Amazon of a vast library of math books, which propels him into a great explo