How to design a metro map [UNCENSORED]

When boarding a train or a bus, you often ignore the brightly-coloured, confusingly-delineated spider web that is your local transit map. But, why though? When properly designed with care & professionalism, a map is integral to a city and community’s visual culture, and when it looks like a regurgitated doughnut, your city (well) is gonna feel like they’ve been treated like crap. Behind every metro map, there are a few key principles that guide any design’s development; a good map is nearly always good for the same reasons. However, as we will very much see, every single city is different and has its special circumstances, so this business is no one-size-fits-all approach.

In this article, we will go over a brief overview and history of the modern metro map. Along with this, we will cover the important principles of graphic cartography, and prove this by giving many examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly from metro systems all over the world.

(NB: I am not a professional graphic designer; I am only some random dude on the internet shitting on decades of institutionalised genius. Please simply read for your own interest. Please don’t get mad at me if I insult your city. I only sniff out crappy metro maps, and, in fact, this is an opportunity to take action and design one for yourself (or just ask me to do it.) All cities deserve big, bright, beautiful maps that are distinct and fun. Except you, Atlanta Metro. You were born to die after the Olympics. I already quit redesigning you cuz you’re just shit.)

1. Navigation

The first instance of a transit diagram is by Harry Beck in 1933 for the London Underground. Back then, it was commonplace to create a map by simply taking a street map and overlaying where the lines run over it. A complicated system map like London could thus be very confusing, with squiggles running all over the place, downtowns being crazily congested and suburbs being all blank. Beck did something different: instead of directly taking the geography and throwing your mom’s shower drain on it, he changed the shapes of the lines themselves. Not literally—he distorted the Underground just enough so that the map’s primary customer were the trains, not the streets. This is the underlying motive for all these designs. I will show you some prime examples of how to (and how not to) properly interpret urban landscapes.

Simply making the map more legible has multiple steps; city centres are usually disproportionately expanded to make use easier. The simplification of the map, in most cases, means to change all angles to 45º and 90º, or another simple, geometric angle. The process also squats station distances and suburban branch lines to provide emphasis to the core. It is also essential that the layout preserves some aspects of important city geography, such as a river, park, or airport, as an ‘anchor’ that grounds the map in geography. Only after the interpretation style of the map is set, we can move on to other more trivial aspects of graphic design.

Spotlight—Moscow

Starting with a heavyweight—I steadfastly believe that this is the best metro map of our era. The emphasis is immediately placed on the Koltsevaya line (Circle line), a perfect circle, which is granted because this is the most important service in terms of transfers and travelling direction. Immediately after, the circle theme is repeated throughout the design, with interchange complexes and (most) other circular lines also built with this gesture. The radii don’t disappoint as well, going in all directions, leaving no space blank, and generally giving a good outlook of the system. All other information on the map is highly succinct with only rail termini and airport transfers are shown. It also forms a set with the official MM font and logo, making the entire spectrum consistent and with a recognisable Russian flair. Great job Moscow!

Confusing and cluttered—Mexico City

Oh god. This is bridging the gap between robotic and not abstracted at all. You deserve better, Mexico—everything in the centre looks like badly cooked spaghetti, and in the suburbs, it takes the shape of that piece of fabric that blows in the wind in an overtly provocative way. This is a shame, however, because Mexico City Metro’s graphic design is excellent, with those Aztec-inspired station logos that has all but disappeared on the map. At one point, you have to either leave it or go full-blown at making a diagram easy to read, and with a system as intricate as Mexico City, you have to go abstract. In the gallery, there are some alts that do so much better in making finding A to B not wrestling the eyeballs. And what’s with that double-coloured line B? Ugh.

Unique and lucidly Iberian—Lisbon (Outdated)

Here, we’ve seemingly broken the rule of abstraction: the lines are presented as is, only with some minor removals of street features. But, it is important to realise that not all cities need distorted maps. The Lisbon Metro is simple enough that rendering it in actual geography is more effective towards navigating than a diagram; people way-find better with a layout like this in this situation. Besides this, the rest of the map is gorgeous! The colouring is saturated with Portuguese freshness and the service icons are one-of-a-kind. Truly unique, this is not often practiced in other parts of the world.

2. Line geometry

A close cousin to the general layout is the line itself. The macro-level is all-encompassing, but they are only truly developed if we dive deep and explore the micro connections that make a good design of what it is.

Like with street maps, once the line is plotted, the first thing of concern to designers is the line weight. This refers to the ideal thickness of a line and the emphasis (or lack thereof) that is placed on the line. Thicker lines immediately direct attention, but are harder to follow; thinner lines give auxiliary functions to the map and are usually not integral to the viewer experience. The default thickness lies in between the extremes, providing good direction while still existing in balance and not removing from the overall user experience. The form of the line could also change: a line could be hollowed, dashed, dotted, or modified in many ways to show different modes of transport or any other information to be conveyed.

Then, our attention will change to shape. How do the combined forms of the line interact? How are curve radii constructed? Are the intersections of interchange clear and interacting? These two factors work together to create good geometry in how the entire complex serves to navigate users.

Clean and chic—Berlin and Paris

These two maps are incredibly similar in terms of line geometry, so we will put them together. Compared to our previous examples, the lines are quite thin and turn radii quite small. But, the navigational aspects are in fact improved: the tight grid makes the overall balance striking, and large commuter corridors (Paris’ RER and Transilien lines are almost double the weight of the Métro, while Berlin’s S-Bahn lines are often 2 or 3-ply) are proportionally emphasised. Most importantly, although this is not exact, the two maps both evoke the street geography of their cities; we recognise Paris for its compact streets and Berlin’s clear boulevards, and the general display simply puts it in a transit-suitable context, what good design is meant to do.

Owl Pellet—Tokyo

Tokyo’s transit system is legitimately impossible to represent faithfully on a diagram—it is simply too gargantuan, and compromises must be made in places to keep the big picture intact. But, I swear, this map is such a congealed web of shitfibre, it boggles my mind that the 40 million commuters that pass through every day can still manage to not get lost. Our HOC Marcus would probably be so inundated with trainage that his brain would most likely explode upon first contact with just Shinjuku station.

Upon first glance, the main metro lines are quite thick: already not imperative to navigation, but even worse when trying to save space. I am also appalled at the lack of emphasis of the Yamanote line, a city circle that is famed among both locals and tourists. In this map here, it’s just a faint grey line that doesn’t draw much attention to the eye. Aside from this, the over-large station titles make finding the destination more tedious than it needs to be, and this is even with some text omissions. Tip: if station codes aren’t a frequent tool for wayfinding in your locality, then either don’t include it or relegate it in small grey text.

I’ve actually been working to brainstorm some alts for Tokyo, and I will attach some below. Here, I made the aforementioned Yamanote line a focal point for the system and spun the rest of the system from. I also experimented with a square projection to visualise the sprawl better. The metro lines are in red and others in dotted blue. (Please don’t judge me not bleeding out all the lines in full colour, I’m only trying to save time and money.)

???—Madrid 2007

The 2007 redesign of the Madrid Metro schematic map has been polarising for both designers and users alike. The principles by which the map was constructed is theoretically very beautiful—line thickness is good, the ticks and interchange nodes are well-designated, and there’s even some well-placed iconography, such as the illustrations of the fare zones. But, is the layout itself too much? Removing all but the 90º angles look sharp and all, however, this is near-impossible to wrap around one’s head, with Madrid being probably Europe’s fastest-growing metro. These weird turns don’t associate easily with actual geography either, so I personally think this would do better as a modern art piece than a portion of our infrastructure. The newest redesign does a good job of balancing both elements though and combines the well-constructed vigour of the 2007 with the sleek, classy turns and angles of a metro map like Paris.

3. Station Iconography

Now that the general tone is set, we need to zoom in and enhance. Of course, the station is the beginning and end of any journey, so a particular emphasis is placed on the legibility & intuitiveness of station connections. The preferred station labelling schemes are as follows:

1. Ticks, a small handle that extends perpendicular to the line,

2. A notch in the middle of the line,

3. A button, a circle that rests on the line,

4. A white/black hole in the middle of the line.

5. Boxes with a station code. This is not preferable because it obscures station function.

There are of course many more, but these are the most widespread.

Interchanges also are uniquely designed, with 2 or 3 major styles:

1. The elongated box. This is most commonly used to denote transit hubs, short-distance interchanges or cross-platform interchanges, although this can be applied to many situations.

2. The bar. This denotes longer-distance interchanges or out-of-station ones, and can use different bar types as well as include times and other modes (in the case of Madrid; see above.)

3. A hybrid.

This is where iconography ties in. When metro systems consult designers, they will usually come with a map, icon set, and type set. These should represent the metro well, and provide an intuitive experience when using the map at the same time. For example:

1. London Underground comes with the roundel and Johnston. Both are inspired by the circular tube tunnels, so the Tube Map will naturally use Johnston’s point-width and round curvatures. Ultimately, the black-and-white circle bars proved worthy of its setting.

2. Moscow Metro’s map has a deeply rooted circle motif in the line shape. The design reinforces this by setting large interchanges (e.g. Kiyevskaya) in this way. Not only is this cool, it visualises the interchange as a many-way affair. It is also evocative of the grand deep triple-vaults that the Soviet architects are famous for exporting.

3. Hong Kong comes with Myriad/Song Text, which generally have conservative curves. The map thus keeps it tight with small station buttons & clean turns. This ties in with the slate architecture that the MTR constructed, fitting very well together.

These designs aren’t robbed of either flavour or functionality, which is what this whole business is about. So, the elements of your station icons (as well as whatever other signage you need to create) are set. Let’s look at some examples.

Finesse—Hong Kong

Delightful!

As I’ve hinted at, the MTR’s graphic design is exquisite. The overall geography is crisp, and Hong Kong Island and Kowloon are proportionately enlarged. However, the way the system and the map interact is what truly sets this apart In the interchange stations, the map displays some glyphs that are quite confusing at first sight. But, in actuality, they refer to the interchange types that are present in the mode: bows represent cross-direction CPIs, slashes are same-direction CPIs, Ts are short interchanges and crosses are long passage interchanges. Without prior experience, this is difficult to wrap your head around, and that is fine; the signage is otherwise adequate. But, comprehending the map makes these tiny details really powerful, and navigating would be so much easier with this indirect information. The icons and platform bullets are polished and square as well. Very clean and sharp, exactly what the MTR wants you to feel.

WTF—Singapore

Something's missing.

The MRT map ticks most of the boxes for a successful metro map, but its icon set really falls short. Following the map signs in Singapore gets you absolutely nowhere. Starting off, the background is way too abstract and you have absolutely no clue of where you actually are. There’s only minimal information presented in how to interchange, and the flow is masked by those awful station codes (PLEASE don’t). The direction bullets are also ridiculously out-of-date and provide no insight whatsoever in how to move around.

Just No—Delhi

Stop. Stop using Johnston. Stop with the navigation. The stations look like rat turds and the lines fucked-up rat hairs. Just get a move on, Delhi. And stop using that lobotomised lady vector in the bottom. STOP.

4. Impact

Onto the grand finale. After you’ve done all this tiresome work, you must face head-on what is the hardest to grapple: impact. The best metro maps don’t represent the city, they need to be woven into the city. Part of this is time and patience. For the other half, you need to be artistic. This journey will stop here because there cannot be a perfect formula to create a memorable metro map. The only tip I can ever recommend is trial and error.

87 Shades of Iconic—London

Absolutely classic. You can even get a tube map face mask.

The Tube Map is, without a doubt, the single most renowned map on the planet. It hasn’t seen a single redesign over its 87 years, so Beck must have really made a difference. Everything about it is absolutely beautiful: the Thames is its beating heart, always there as the spine of the map. Lots of variety regarding stations, with these striking diagonals rigidly defining the map’s grid. Recently, things have changed with the many accessible signs and orange hollow lines, but nonetheless, it is still a masterpiece of ingenuity that still holds to this day.

I am throwin' away my shot—New York City

Aaah!

You need a Long Island Iced Tea, New York. You had the perfect chance to throw yourself out of the sewer when Vignelli came and gave you bullets and Helvetica. Instead, you chucked your perfectly good, modern-standard map straight into the compost pile. Your modern bojangle is is just a messy serving of I-don't-know-what on a piece of paper; streets fly everywhere, half the page is just airport connections, and there' so much text, it's actually reflecting the state of pollution in the East River. However, the '72 Vignelli had a great shot: The crisp edges and brown background was quintessentially New York. It's brash and uncompromising, fierce but cultured, well-polished, and refined. We can place it in an effective 21st-century context, like many designers have attempted doing.

The Vignelli '72: Why did it go so wrong?

Try Your Best—Every. Chinese. Metro. System. Ever

I cannot live without the metro system in Beijing, Shanghai, or anywhere else that has one; it's cheap, clean, goes everywhere, and built in 20 years what took the West 150. Behind this unrelenting progress however, the state of graphic design in Chinese transit is truly disappointing. The standard template in Beijing is already quite vanilla, but Beijing's only the tip of the iceberg—this template is used in nearly every mid-small size metro in the country. But China has potential; its architecture is rigid, powerful, and balanced. Its traditional art is graceful and inundating with passion. Let us try to apply what we have talked about and create a few alts. I only did these in about 20 minutes, freehand, so these are only prototypes that still need a lot of further development.

Beijing's grid is simple but even, so we apply the rule of thirds and turn the sprawl square. We can also take inspiration fro calligraphy and make the curves sweeping and dashing. The current map already does this quite well, so we need only make a few adjustments.

The other unofficial prototype I've created is for Chengdu. Instead of the current megalomaniac assembly, I've instead directly used the very concentric ring roads of Chengdu. I thus drew 4 circumferences and 4 diameters around the centre (Tianfu Square station) and connected the dots.

So What?

In conclusion, this article only scratched the surface of metro map design, but, as we've already seen, the potential of this is very astounding. Again and again, we've seen that simple principles make for an outstanding work, and with graphic maps, this is always the case. What is your favourite metro map? Discussion is always encouraged in the comments section.