The first three chapters of the part Layout of Ilya Birman’s Designing Transit Maps are out. The chapters are ‘Grapheme’, ‘Texture’, and ‘Rhythm’.
The book speaks of transit maps history, important principles of their design, and how they evolve together with their networks. The author talks about techniques: plotting the lines, denoting the stops, choosing the fonts, and composing the final poster.
Few designers have an occasion to design a subway map. But the principles and techniques discussed are applicable to any tasks of complex information display: org charts, family trees, control‑flow diagrams, fire escape plans, military operation plans, project timelines, architectural drawings. The book sharpens the reader’s eye and inculcates attention to detail.
Grapheme
A transit map has a general shape that is perceived before individual lines and labels are examined. It’s what we call a grapheme. A good grapheme helps to recognize the map and gives the passenger’s eye some points of reference. Read this chapter to find out what map features can be useful for this and why you shouldn’t sacrifice all geography to the grapheme.
Texture
A map’s layout feels solid when it has uniform density, or texture. For this, the designer has to make sure that the labels, lines, rivers, streets, and other elements are evenly distributed on the map. Some techniques of how to get rid of holes and lumps are collected in this chapter.
Rhythm
To establish rhythm, you can introduce a modular grid for spacing between lines and stations, for thicknesses; a baseline grid for labels. There is no need for the modular grid to be uniform throughout the map: different areas of the map may obey different rules. From this chapter, you’ll learn how designers use modular grids in maps and deliberately disrupt them to make a map visually more coherent.
Sample chapter
The chapter ‘Bends’ is available for free. In the chapter Ilya Birman shows good and bad ways to bend the lines, introduces the bend visibility principle, talks about harmonizing the bends in line bundles.
Preorder
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