The New York Subway Map Debate

by Gary Hustwit, Stan Ries (Photographer), Paula Scher (Forward)

The discovery of a lost audio recording sheds new light on a pivotal event in design history: the 1978 debate between designer Massimo Vignelli and cartographer John Tauranac over the future of the NYC Subway Map. The New York Subway Map Debate features the full transcript and discussions that followed, along with never-before-seen photographs of the evening by Stan Ries. Edited by filmmaker and design historian Gary Hustwit, with a foreword by designer Paula Scher.

Genres: New York, Art Design

140 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Gary Hustwit is an independent filmmaker based in New York and London. He worked with punk label SST Records in the late 1980s, and was subsequently involved in a wide range of projects in music and book publishing before he began producing documentaries in 2001. His films include the design documentaries Helvetica, Objectified and Urbanized.

Reviews

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of the most interesting (and specific) books I've read in a while... turns out the MTA has been figuring out a lot of the same shit for decades—surprise!!!

[Lejla Sarcevic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing little book, but for something that's about details on maps, it sure is way too small to see... the details on the maps that are printed. Seems such a weird, unforced error.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun to hear Massimo Vignelli and other map makers / design / transit people discuss what makes a good map. Is it reducing detail as much as possible, so the communication is targeted and concise? Or does a better map include more and more layers of information? Also interesting to hear about some of the crazy details about why NYC’s system is so complicated and hard to navigate.

Also as a designer it was fun/familiar/soul-crushing to learn Vignelli & Associates designed a whole system, the client implemented only 1/3 of the system, and then wondered why it wasn’t effective and had it redone. LOLz.

[Jesse Meyerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Presented minimally to mostly let the actual transcript be the bulk of the work, it's well framed with intros, interspersed with found objects to lend character to the event photos during the debate, and wrapped up with a few interviews at the end. Will definitely reread and a joy to have this handsome little time capsule.
Some serious design flaws though, very tight binding and letters are included in landscape so you can't read whole paragraphs lest you break the spine and an almost "free on Kindle"-level of type setting errors too, ironic given the author.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the Helvetica movie, I was glad to discover this little gem and revisit good old Vignelli. I read the whole thing in a day. Highly enjoyable background information, which I appreciated both as a lover of good design as well as a subway user on visits to NYC and London.

I would give it five stars except for the glued paperback design, which prevented the maps and photos from laying flat, or even being completely visible. That was a bad oversight for a book that comes from the design community.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

the only shame is that it doesn't have the map inserts of all references, plus the two maps on debate are printed very small (particularly the 1979 one), so it's difficult to parse. great stuff, love the screed against sans serif, love the digs at mta and its budget (and thus vignelli's naivete in thinking there'd be THREE maps), the refocusing on implementation not design (why aren't all the maps outside of stations? reiterates many people) -- not a huge focal point but the misogyny is so palpable sometimes!

[Padraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abstract simple inaccurate.

Literal complex accurate.

Classic design tradeoff. Be it subway maps or software user interface

I like Vignelli's 3 map idea. They all have a place and purpose.

[Joe Pokorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty cool transcription of what was a significant event - follow up interviews were cool as well!

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED the content, but several pictures fell in the centerfold making the text hard to read, which was disappointing.