May 3, 2008 5:37 PM PDT

Retro metro - the legendary New York subway map is back!

(Credit: Men's Vogue)

The 1972 New York subway map is back! Massimo Vignelli, the man behind this graphic design classic, was asked by Men's Vogue to update his legendary map for the magazine's May issue, reflecting more than 30 years' worth of changes.

When it was first released in 1972, the map was both beloved and hated for its high level of abstraction and artistic freedom (the 50th Street and Broadway stop, for example, was east of 8th Avenue instead of west). Some New Yorkers remarked that the map succeeded in its obvious intention to make it easy for tourists to get lost.

To placate the critics, later versions by other designers added neighborhood names, landmarks, and green parks, and in 1998, the map started including bus and ferry routes. Even on his retro-map, however, Vignelli remains a purist: "On purpose we rejected any visual reference to nature or landmarks."

advertisement
 
Discover unlimited music for the price of one CD a month
Recent posts from Matter/Anti-Matter
The future of business is social: notes from the Milken Global Conference
Design conversations, not products
Retro metro - the legendary New York subway map is back!
Rallying cry for innovation at Fortune Brainstorm Green and Milken Conference
Happy 15th birthday, WWW
Powered by Jive Software
advertisement
  • About Matter/Anti-Matter

  • Tim Leberecht and Adam Richardson both work for frog design, a consulting firm specialized in designing innovative products and services for Fortune 500 clients. On the Matter / Anti-Matter blog, they engage in a debate around questions they face day-to-day in their work, using convergence/divergence as a lens through which to look at the pressing issues in business, culture, and technology. What makes a successful convergent product or a successful divergent innovation? Is convergence a myth that users don't really care about, or is the current state of convergence just not satisfying enough for them to embrace? How much divergence of innovation is good, and when does it just become confusing? How do you stay on top of people's ever changing needs and wants?

    They are members of the CNET Blog Network and are not employees of CNET.

Add this feed to your online news reader
Google
Yahoo
MSN
advertisement
On CHOW: Does drinking ice water burn calories?
Visit other CNET Networks sites: