Transit Maps Project
2025
The main goal of this project is to develop a system of designing transit maps that show a combination of various current and future passenger rail services in a given area, with a focus on how the different lines and routes interacted with one another. The design system had to be clean, unified, and modular to work in a variety of cities. In order to focus on the interactions between variious services, I chose to treat every line in the exact same way, regardless of its speed, frequency, distaance or importance. I am fascinated with how railroads and rapid transit have changed city life over time and connected communities together, and the design evolution of maps throughout history does an excellent job of showing this. While this design system is heavily based on my own artistic style and preferences, I drew inspiration from Lance Wyman's Washington Metro map and Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 New York Subway map.
The DC and Baltimore map was the first map I created and the one where I developed the overall design system. I experimented for almost three years with various options for station indicators, line symbols and line routes before settling on this design. It was important to me to make sure I straightened out many of the twists and turns that are shown on the official metro map but are not necessary for a passenger to navigate or understand the system.
The success with my Washington map inspired me to create a map for the Philadelphia region in the same style. With additional inspiration coming from SEPTA's recent rebrand, this map proved challenging due to the numerous Regional Rail lines running through the core of the city and the various service patterns of the B line.
The next city I focused on was Chicago. This map ended up more complicated than I was anticipating because of the sheer size of the area served. In addition, I wanted to keep stations along the same streets aligned with each other as much as possible. The Chicago street grid is an important characteristic of the city, and is featured prominently on the official CTA map, and I wanted to pay homage to that.
My most recent map went to the complete other end of the country where I focused on the San Francisco Bay Area. This map was perhaps not as complex as some of my previous ones, but it was still a little tricky. The central core has 10 lines running along the same route proving to be challenging in the same was as Philly was, but I also frequently ran into troubles getting the lines to align with each other in the way I wanted upon getting to the San Jose area.
