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Because of my love for travel I find transit maps the most interesting and found the book, Transit Maps of the World, to be one of my greatest collections of transit maps out there. It includes New York City’s Subway Map, fourth on the list of most used metro systems in the world, and dates back original designs from 1905. (Speaking of the most used metro systems, it’s a good thing we are not #1 like Tokyo.)

Somehow I missed one of the greatest map releases last year. Massimo Vignelli has updated his original 1972 Map of New York City’s Subway and Men’s Vouge gave away a limited edition of 500. Vignelli thinks the current subway map is loaded with confusing information. Perhaps MTA should consider adapting and replacing the existing map?

See Massimo Vignelli explain his 1972 NYC Subway Map in an outtake from the film Helvetica.

It didn’t match. It didn’t match the sturdy stuff on the platforms. The standard typeface, good ol’ Helvetica, that is applied (mostly) consistently across the system. Say what you will about Helvetica (and there’s much to say, if you saw the film last year), I never realized how comforting I found the signage of the subway system. (Pardon the fuzzy phone photos.)

Because, really, I don’t have anything against whatever it is in use – and I haven’t figured out what it is yet (close to Hel. compressed, but not quite). It was just so … foreign. And it toyed with me. A condensed here, and right next to it, a roman, and then an extended width. My mind raced: would I be waiting 20 minutes for a train? Would my beloved A Express go local? Were there signal problems on the line? Would I have to take the D and walk 30 blocks?

Perhaps as a designer, I’m more visually sensitive than some. But it hit home for me in that moment: design matters. Choice of typeface matters. Consistency in application matters. I never realized how reassuring I found the stability and clarity of the subway signs.

Days later, I’ve come to appreciate the quirky temporary signs. But I still don’t trust them as much as if they were in Helvetica.

In 1974 AIGA and the U.S. Department of Transportation worked together to develop a system of signs to be used in airports, other transportation hubs and at large international events. They organized a committee (including such designers as Massimo Vignelli, the designer of the 1972 subway map and Seymour Chwast) to develop a system of signs that would become the standard for 50 common symbols to address different ages and cultures. These symbols are available online as a free download: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/symbol-signs

Perhaps over time there will be a universal signage system that we use throughout the world to make traveling overseas a little less intimidating.