23.01.2023 - BBC Design Classics; London Tube Map

 23/01/2023 - Class Task - BBC Design Classics; London Tube Map

• New Yorks Modern Arts Museum keep a copy of the London Tube Map
• 250 miles of track, 273 stations all on the map 
• Solves issues to new comers to London
• Frank Pick - set out to revolutionise London Transport
• Johnson used a san-serif for a new typeface
• 1933 Holdens new stations opened, new underground map was also opened (this was made out of the blue and not requested, initially it was going to be turned down)
• Harry Beck was the man who made the map in his own time, in his school books, it was turned down. It was ‘ too revolutionary’.
• He tried it again and they gave it a go with 500 copies printed as a test - these were lapped up and more had to be ordered several times
• Beck simplified it and realised he only needed to show which station went where and what connected stations together. He did away with the geographical elements of the old map
• He ‘blew’ the map up in size so that the central system was clearer and easy to use
• Map was inspired by electric circuits (the way in which they connect). One of his first maps was hand drawn and he changed some of the names to electrical names
• Becks innocence helped make the map as simple as it was
• The map is aesthetic without even trying to be, it is often printed on merchandise
• London Transport paid Beck 5 guineas.
• 23 years Beck strove to update his map (new lines added etc)
• Circles, Diamonds and linking rings were all tested and tried on the map
• They now use checks to mark the different stations
• The thames was the only geographical element on the map
• Linking white bars used to show interchanges
• Hutchinson made a map after Beck but it confused people and was spiky, so it was scraped.
• Beck got the map back and redesigned it - this updated version is the one in use today
• 80 underground systems around the world, which copies the London underground map, used by road, rail and air networks
• Solved a problem by creating a graphical visual system
• Harry Beck never really got the credit he was due for the map, his name was removed and he doesn’t have a statue or anything to remember him, just a plaque.