Helvetica and the New York City Subway System
The True (Maybe) Story
$87.22
- Hardcover
144 pages
- Release Date
11 February 2011
Summary
How New York City subways signage evolved from a “visual mess” to a uniform system with Helvetica triumphant.For years, the signs in the New York City subway system were a bewildering hodge-podge of lettering styles, sizes, shapes, materials, colors, and messages. The original mosaics (dating from as early as 1904), displaying a variety of serif and sans serif letters and decorative elements, were supplemented by signs in terracotta and cut stone. Over the years, enamel signs identifying stat…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262015486 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 026201548X |
| Author: | Paul Shaw |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 144 |
| Release Date: | 11 February 2011 |
| Weight: | 1.07kg |
| Dimensions: | 241mm x 279mm x 25mm |
| Series: | The MIT Press |
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Critics Review
A concise history of the New York subway, a visual archive of century’s worth of underground signs (some of which are still in use), and an impressive study of the conflict between the purity of design and the messiness of the real world.
—The Wilson Quarterly[D]esign projects are rarely tidy; they’re much likelier to be muddled, chaotic, and to be determined by flukes, gaffes and compromises as much as forethought. It’s always refreshing to come across an unexpurgated account of the messy reality, and the American design historian Paul Shaw has produced a particularly thoughtful and engaging example in his new book, Helvetica and the New York City Subway System.
—Alice Rawsthorn, The New York TimesMr. Shaw makes clear in one of the best-researched books on modern design to date, this most New York of places is today a realm dominated by a Swiss typeface specified by a pair of Italian designers. There isn’t better testimony to the city as a melting pot or to the strange turns that any major design project inevitably takes.
—The Wall Street JournalAbout The Author
Paul Shaw
Paul Shaw, an award-winning graphic designer, typographer, and calligrapher in New York City, teaches at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts. The designer or codesigner of eighteen typefaces, he is the coauthor of Blackletter- Type and National Identity and the author of Helvetica and the New York City Subway System (MIT Press). He writes about letter design in the blog Blue Pencil.
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