pragmatics (the effect of the sign on the receiver). It’s a closed-loop system
to make sure a design clearly and consistently represents the proper
message and that the audience receives that message as intended.
For Vignelli the semiotic grid is the sine qua nonof communication
design and the perfect tool to untangle the jumble the subway system had
become by the 1960 s. The IRT, BMT, and IND had grown sporadically into
714 miles of track with some 465 stations. The signage project began with an
analysis of the traffic flow to identify points of decision and levels of
information. From that, Vignelli devised a modular system of signs each
designed as individual units, like the letters of an alphabet, which were then
hung together to form informational sentences. Mathematical precision and
rationality informed every part of the system from the prefabricated signs in
lengths of one, two, four, or eight feet, to the typography that was similarly
modulated with the smallest type on the informational panels one-half the
size of the type on the directional panels, and that one-half the size of the
typography on the station identification signs.
Vignelli wanted to hang the signs from thick black support bars
that he believed would unify the information. This echoed his earlier work
for the Piccolo Teatro ( 1964 ) in Milan, a poster that featured his signature
style of tightly spaced sans-serif typography and introduced the concept of
“information bands,” information separated by wide black rules, which
became characteristic of his designs in the following years. The Transit
Authority never installed the black support bars, but rather painted black
bars across the tops of the panels.
In 1971 Massimo Vignelli left Unimark and with his wife Lella
established Vignelli and Associates and Vignelli Designs in New York.
Lella was named president of Vignelli Designs, the branch of the firm
responsible for product and furniture design. Vignelli and Associates was
commissioned to design a map for the subway system that would untangle
the web of train lines on the existing one. Vignelli had initially envisioned
an interrelated system of maps: an overall system map, a geographic map
indicating the relationship of the subway to the geography, a detailed
neighborhood map to re-orient the traveler upon arrival at a new
destination, a pocket map, and what Vignelli called a “verbal map”—
intended for the main stations that featured written directions from point
Ato point Bin language that Mama would use, “Take train # 6 to 59 th
Street, transfer to train RR and get off at Times Square.” Pointing out that
50 percent of the population is verbally oriented and 50 percent is visually
oriented, Vignelli’s verbal map directly addressed the needs of the public.
Although one was implemented in Grand Central Station, the verbal maps
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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