WEEK 6 | Documentary

London Underground Map

-Harry Beck's map is the template for underground maps around the world (communication design classic)
-Greatest British design

=almost impossible to improve, perfect piece of design
-impose sense on a huge and complex system - 273 stations

-clear diagram for newcomers to London - helps well to get around

Edward Johnson - clean line logical, efficient font

Harry Beck

-designed on his own
-1931 first sketch in school exercise book
-hand drawn
-trial edition (about 500 copies) in Central Station
-it wasn't necessary to show the relative distance between the stations = threw off all geographical shackles
=diagram instead of a map - breakthrough
-system of trial and error - he was an engineering draftsman (not a graphic designer)

-kept being updated
-preoccupied how to linking interchanges
1940s version - strong one, colour coding settled, geographical instances abandoned

-the map is now the best representation of London to people

-noone asked for a replacement, not a work of a graphic designer = now the most updated version
-trying to make it the most comprehensible for the passengers while still looking nice

-everyone uses diagrammatical map based of Beck's design
-the plan is to leave the map as it is

Ken Garland