AIGA.com has a great article on the history of signage in the New York City Subway. I’ve always loved the old tile mosaics in the stations, including the lack of uniformity, and I’ve always wished the MTA would actually make an effort to keep them looking new.
2 thoughts on “Underground typography”
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At least in Manhattan, a lot of the mosaics look so new that I just assumed they *were* new.
Some of them actually are newer, in imitation of the classic style. This article has some more good info, and WAY more links than I have the time to follow.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/how-helvetica-took-over-the-subway/?hp