As identifiable elements go, the signs in the subways are among the city’s most recognizable. Look up at the header on Second Ave. Sagas, and you will see a sight familiar to any who ride the subway: a modular sign featuring Helvetica — or one of its close relatives — on a black background.
But it wasn’t always like that. Now and then, relics of an old age pop up. These old signs pop up in various stations around the city or at the Transit Museum. For the most part, though, the signs are standardized.
This homogenization process started in the late 1960s. With the advent of the MTA and the arrival of free transfers among the old IRT, BMT and IND lines throughout the system, the transit agency had to figure out a way to get passengers moving swiftly and efficiently through the tunnels. Enter Massimo Vignelli.
The creator of the one the subway system’s most controversial maps also designed its omnipresent graphics, as he discusses on his website. Vignelli used a sans serif font — then Akzidenz-Grotesk, now Helvetica — to guard passengers throughout the system.
History isn’t this neat though, and it actually took a lot of wrangling and trial and error to develop a fairly efficient system that still has some quirks. (Anyone ever notice the signs that urge you to find an exit at another end of the “plat” instead of the platform?) To that end, Paul Shaw, a respected graphics designer, has penned an epic piece on the history of the New York City subway signs. While long, it makes for great reading over the Thanksgiving weekend, and it’s chock full of minutiae and urban history that subway buffs love.
Out of a great big mess of fonts, signs and designs came simplicity and uniformity. It is a Hollywood ending for graphics enthusiasts and subway buffs everywhere.
4 comments
Fascinating article. I still loathe Helvetica (the word “dull” in the article about sums it up for me), but it was interesting to learn how it came to be used in the NYC subway.
[…] 2nd Ave. Subway History « The long history of fonts in the subway […]
Incredibly interesting article! I have always wondered how the hodgepodge of fonts came to be.
I would like to know more about these old subway lines, like the AA or CC.
[…] Massimo Vignelli is the superstar of the design of subway signs. He is largely credited with bringing a uniform design to the subway system shortly after the formation of the MTA in the late 1960s. Vignelli, who at the […]