Often times, it seems like the most consistent and dependable thing about our mass transit system is the iconography and signage. That design work is now the subject of a new installation at the 5th Avenue/53rd Street subway station in Manhattan.
The installation is a collaborative effort between the MTA and MoMA, and replaces the previous installation there, “53rd Street Art Stop,” which consisted of porcelain panels that highlighted institutions around 53rd Street. (That information, which was first put up in 2000, understandably became outdated over time.) This new project is a testament to the decades of collaboration between the museum and the transit organization, dating back to the 1960s, which led to the now-iconic signage and streamlined maps of our current system.
Here is how the MTA describes the backstory of the installation:
The starting point for this installation is the 1967 MoMA symposium “Transportation Graphics: Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?”, which was organized by MoMA curator Mildred Constantine after introducing Transit Authority chair Daniel Scannell to graphic designers Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda of Unimark International. The resulting work of this team is celebrated in this dynamic visual display, which highlights the iconic graphic identity established for the subway system in the early 1970s.
The display, which has over 70 panels across the platforms, features detailed images of the 1972 subway map diagram, which featured a color-coded diagram-style map. There are pages from the definitive New York City Transit Authority Graphic Standards Manual that celebrate the black and white signage system that is still in use today. The display also includes an explanatory text panel, an illustrated timeline, and quotations from key figures involved in the system’s graphic redesign.
Check out photos from the station up above. You can learn more about Modernist designer Massimo Vignelli, who died in 2014, here.
