The first three chapters of the part Details of Ilya Birman’s Designing Transit Maps are out. The chapters are ‘Lines’, ‘Bundles’, and ‘Bends’.
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.
Lines
Routes on a map are represented with lines. The designer adjusts their thickness, style, sometimes even pattern. This is especially difficult when you need to show several modes of transportation or features of certain routes, such as sections under construction. It is important not to overthink it: the more complex the system of designations, the more explanations are needed and the more difficult it is to use the map.
Bundles
When several routes have a common section, lines on a map can run in a bundle. Bundles pose questions for the designer: how to make individual lines in a bundle legible, how not to ruin a bundle when lines leave it, how to bundle lines of different thickness or style. In the chapter “Bundles” Ilya answers these questions and offers useful tricks with line colors and patterns, with their arrangement in a bundle.
Bends
Turns on a map must be smooth and clearly visible, and their roundings must be harmonized with each other. To harmonize does not mean to make them the same everywhere. In this chapter, Ilya shows how to choose the shape of a rounding in different cases and how to draw eye‑pleasing and natural curves in Illustrator.
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.
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