Despite the city of London hurtling transport around this fair city for the better part of a century now, it seems we’re still living in the dark ages when it comes to maps.
Creaking rail networks are being fixed, Boris buses are driving us to the 22nd century and yet due to the clustered illustrated layouts of the pamphlets, nobody really has a clue where they’re going. Lord knows how we'll cope by 2050.
And as you expand the maps to zones 4 to 6, it only gets messier, with irregular bends and ghost over-ground services appearing out of nowhere as if Paul Daniels doodled them on himself.
Well not anymore. This brilliant design by Paris-based architect Jug Cerović overhauls TfL’s current map so that the Tube, rail network, river boat services and Emirates Air Line (the one nobody uses) are simpler to read than ever. And more handsome too.
Produced as part of a series involving the transport systems of 12 key world cities, Cerović told The Evening Standard that London was one of the “must dos” due to the “size and history of the network as well as of the iconic status of the current map."
Adding, "A couple of years ago I developed a personal graphic language for building metro maps and started applying it to different networks around the world. I was curious to see if a common language could be used for all of them to make them universally intelligible but still keep a very original and unique look for each city. And it works.”
Sign him up, TfL.
