The Great New York Subway Map

Find your way around the New York City subway! This book introduces the idea of graphic design as a way to solve problems and challenges, such as creating a map that can be understood by all New Yorkers and out-of-towners. Author and illustrator Emiliano Ponzi uses depictions of trains, subway stations, and the NYC skyline to create a love letter to the city. A groundbreaking work of information design, the subway map, designed by Massimo Vignelli, is an iconic work used by over a billion people every year. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the original 1972 diagram, along with the 1970 graphics standards manual Vignelli created for signage and station information, in 2004. The map is intimately tied to MoMA’s history, as it was a MoMA curator, Mildred Constantine, who recommended that New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority commission the map from the Italian designer.