Simplify, simplify, simplify

New York Subway Map, 1972. Designed by Massimo Vignelli. When the New York City MTA hired Vignelli to develop a new plan for its subway navigation, he was tasked with streamlining the wayfinding process for riders and bringing New York into the future. Train routes were straightened into neat angles to make a tidy diagram out of the actual snarl of criss-crossing tunnels. Forty years later, graphic designers still laud Vignelli’s map as a triumph and a major breakthrough in information graphics. The rest is history…