179

Massimo Vignelli

1931-2014

New York City Subway Map. 1974.

Condition A- / B+: reattached top right corner; repaired tear at bottom left edge, archival tape on verso. Paper.

Vignelli's relationship to the New York City Subway system ran deep, beginning in the mid-1960s when he helped redesign and unify the signage throughout the network. He designed this map in 1972, which took its visual cues from the map designed for the London Underground by Henry Beck in 1933. As iconic as it has become, Vignelli's design was not without its detractors. As the New York Times reported, "Many stations seemed to be in the wrong places. The water surrounding the city was colored beige, not blue. As for Central Park, it appeared to be almost square, rather than an elongated rectangle, three times bigger than the map suggested, and was depicted in a dreary shade of gray . . . the map was indeed riddled with anomalies, but that was the point. Its designer, Massimo Vignelli, had sacrificed geographical accuracy for clarity by reinterpreting New York's tangled labyrinth of subway lines as a neat diagram" (New York Times, Aug. 5, 2012).

The map was re-released (with revisions) 6 times between 1973 and 1978 until it was replaced in 1979 with the Tauranac/Hertz design.
59½x46¼ inches, 151x117½ cm.

  • Condition:
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April 7, 2026 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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