Fantasy maps re-imagine public transit
Numan Parada's Fantasy LA Transit Map
Fantasy maps re-imagine public transit by re-using London Underground typologies:
Some transit advocates attend meetings. Others write letters. Some even picket outside subway stations.
Numan Parada makes maps.
At a time when a subway-to-the-sea along Wilshire Boulevard is still far from a reality, he is plotting it on a map anyway.
With the click of a mouse, he puts a notch next to the Getty Center on the rail line he envisions branching off Wilshire Boulevard to follow the 405 Freeway corridor to the San Fernando Valley.
"That's a good place for a station," he said. "It's an obvious traffic generator."
I am always fascinated by fictitious map makers (I've made my fair share of fictitious maps) because the most serious ones bring a consistency and rigor to their work which can only be described as tautological. Be it a map of online communities or be it Adrian Leskiw's Fictional Road Maps the best of the fictitious maps are pieces of art into themselves.
But there is a nit to pick: Harry Beck's Underground Map is amazing, but doesn't travel well to other locations (especially due to its' ignoring geographic realities). The closest anyone has come to reusing Beck's design intent was Vignelli's 1972 NYC Map - which, if you remember, have panned repeatedly as a documentation of creative sophistry.
Please stop using the iconography of Beck's design: it is a singular work of brilliance which doesn't translate well to other forms of transportation, location and context. Celebrate the design, but please don't dishonor the design by copying the iconography devoid of context. This is analogous to creating detached suburban homes with minarets, crenelations, adobe earthworks and the like.
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This is the permanent home of Fantasy maps re-imagine public transit. I wrote this post at 16:25 on May 27, 2007. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Coming Soon: Congestion Charge or Remember...? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
