Did NYC fix its subway map design dilemma?
MTA's new subway map has a geographically accurate companion map so riders won't get confused
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Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at:
Did NYC fix its subway map design dilemma?
Biden’s designers worked with this Pennslyvania Democrat
These before-and-after renderings imagine how climate change could hit major cities
Sotheby’s is getting into NFTs
Did NYC fix its subway map design dilemma?
New York City could be getting a new subway map based on a 1970s classic.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority is testing out a new design (above) inspired by famed Italian designer Massimo Vignelli’s modernist map used from 1972 to 1979 (below left), but with some tweaks.
There were elements of Vignelli’s map that were criticized for confusing riders. The simplified straight lines looked great, but along with map distortions made in crowded areas like downtown Manhattan, they made it difficult to judge distance and geography. Vignelli’s map was replaced in 1979 with a new map by Michael Hertz that’s been the basis for maps used ever since.
The new map still has the same problem as Vignelli’s, with parts of the city heavily distorted to show how subway lines interact with each other. MTA’s fix is to post it next to a more geo-realistic map of the city overlaid with subway and bus lines to give riders a true-to-life comparison.
For now, the new map is being introduced “gradually so people can get used to it,” MTA chief customer officer Sarah Meyer told the Wall Street Journal, and it’s posted in just nine stations in temporary self-adhesive vinyl. Riders can give their feedback via a QR code.
Biden’s designers worked with this Pennsylvania Democrat
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced he’s running for governor last Wednesday with branding by Studio Gradients, the creative agency made up of Biden 2020 campaign alumni. It’s the first American candidate Studio Gradients has worked with for the midterms.
Shapiro’s identity uses the sans serif Knockout from Hoefler&Co. along with the script Snell Roundhand.
“Josh Shapiro has served Pennsylvanians wholeheartedly by helping folks out where it matters most and taking on the powerful,” founder Robyn Kanner told me. “When we got the chance to talk with him and his team, it was a natural fit. It also didn’t hurt that we bonded over our love of basketball.”
These before-and-after renderings imagine how climate change could hit major cities
To visualize its new research about rising sea levels, the climate change nonprofit Climate Central worked with visual artist Nickolay Lamm to render what vulnerable coastal locations around the world could look like based on our current carbon path.
The group notes the worst-case sea levels in its renderings might take centuries to realize, but called for action now, recommending we meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s most aggressive goals and plan for a future in which nations either abandon coastal cities or build new kinds of defenses to protect against rising sea levels. Yikes.
Climate Central found roughly 50 major cities around the world will have to “mount globally unprecedented defenses or lose most of their populated areas to unremitting sea level rise lasting hundreds of years,” and that about 10% of the world’s current population lives on land that could be hit by rising sea levels.
You can see Climate Central’s renderings from other cities around the world here.
Sotheby’s is getting into NFTs
Sotheby’s launched the new digital art show Natively Digital 1.2 Monday on Metaverse, the first-ever dedicated NFT marketplace from an auction house.
The show includes 53 works of digital art available as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, basically a way to own the rights to a specific digital work verified on blockchain technology. The curated sale draws from 19 collectors, including Paris Hilton, Steve Aoki, and people with usernames like CatDad, Pranksy, and NFTGirl.
You can browse the full collection here. There’s a rare Michael Jordan Pepe, one of TIME magazine’s NFTs titled “The Lines of History,” and video NFTs like “Creator’s Block/Circular Release” by Jason Seife.
NFTs have taken the art world by storm, and the entrance of a 277-year auction house into the space suggests it’s not a passing fad.
This is cool
See you next week — Hunter