I came across a book a week ago about the London Underground. I had no time to have a look until today, when I found out that it’s not just about the Underground.
It’s about graphics design, and how Mr Beck came up with the current design of the unnique London Underground map. The book explains that he decided to go against the concept of depicting reality. The Underground got so extensive in the 1930’s already, that representing the network on a realisitc map got too confusing. Mr Beck decided to simplify the look of the map and borrowed the symbols from electric engineering. The map started to look like a circuit.
His bosses were concerned that the map wasn’t detailed enough and so they added extra details to the map, which resulted in creating confusion among the travellling public. Mr Beck eventually redesigned the map in the 50’s. His design got rejected in the 60’s, but in the end London Transport went back to the Beck’s design in 1994. Why? Because it seemed the easiest to read, use and simple.
I found this whole story instructive: concentrate on simplicity and not the annoying (pointless, useless) details does pay off.
Comments are closed.