Thursday, May 01, 2008

Bad Abstract.


Massimo Vignelli from 1972

via the Times. This abstract map of the NYC subway system sure is perty, but I guarantee you that I'd be, like, walking into rivers and shit. Worst sense of direction on the planet, I have. 11 years living here, and I still get dizzy when I have to figure out which way is East and West. I mean that, literally. Thank the art gods that Vignelli's redesign is only for a magazine and that it's NOT making a return to the city which it originally violated in the 1972.

Hey, look! The Bivs says, "Here's a tidy article on the original from Michael Bierut." Hell. Forget the Times article. Go read the Beirut piece. It's much more fun.

6 comments:

David said...

Here's a tidy article on the original from Michael Bierut: http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000218.html

JD said...

Ha, I totally agree, HAA. What a buttload of ego masquerading as "help" for actual subway riders. It IS sort of purty, though.

Heart As Arena said...

Ha! JD. I was just posting an addendum to this post when you posted your comment. Don't miss that Beirut article.

Heart As Arena said...

Oh, and that's totally my new band name by the way . . . Buttload of Ego.

Oly said...

B.B., come on now!

How on earth can you claim to be directionally challenged, yet in your previous post you were praising the wonders of the "GRID."

Cough...
Ahem.... COUGH!

Hint-- this city is a perfect grid system.

And yes, I can name almost every named sequential stop on no less than 3 of those lines.

Rainman Oly

Heart As Arena said...

I have one thnig to remind you of Oly . . . the place where 4th street and 10th street cross. Actually, ironically I know my way around the W. Village really well because I worked down there for 5 years. But that's all about the landmarks. I'm like a blind person who knows where the furniture is in the room when I'm down there. If anybody ever moved St. Luke's garden or The Archive I'd be walking into walls.