Category: General

Getting Real: Reflecting on the New Look of National Park Service Maps

New Look of National Park Service Maps

The move to more realistic map design by the NPS has been gradual and unplanned. Using graphical software applications that allow sophisticated designs to be routinely produced that were previously only imagined, the NPS has found itself inextricably drawn toward using greater realism. Cartography is not alone in this trend. Realism has become ubiquitous in almost every graphical medium today from television to print publishing to multimedia. For example, the graphical user interface (GUI) of Mac OS X, the virtual environment in which I am now immersed, uses soft drop shadows, transparency, pulsing 3D buttons, and a soothing “aqua” desktop to hide its complex Unix underpinnings from the casual computer user (me). The enhanced realism of NPS maps has a similar aim—sparing the park visitor from the off-putting technical aspects of conventional cartography with a map user interface (MUI) that is more user-friendly and that simultaneously delivers relevant and accurate information.

Getting Real: Reflecting on the New Look of National Park Service Maps (via Anil Dash).

NYC Taxi Logo Change

nyc taxi - old and new
The New York Times is soliciting designers critique the new NYC Taxi logo, and have posted the first responses:

Below is Michael Bierut’s (of Pentagram and Design Observer fame) review:

“I think the content is all very sound and I agree with virtually every decision made in the editing and organization of the fare panel, from the elimination of the headline TAXI FARE (it is on a taxi, after all) to the simplification of the fare structure.
“I have to admit, the form is more of a problem for me. I am a little confused by the overall aesthetic of the new graphic, which seems to be intentionally crude and lumpy, more Checker than Crown Vic, I guess. There is also a blunted trailing off of the other checker pattern which seems particularly halfhearted to me. And that attempt to combine the NYC logo which is being used elsewhere with T in a circle (why?) and that (again) bluntly rounded off and oddly-spaced A-X-I just seems a little ham handed. Maybe it looked good on paper, but I don’t find it convincing on the side of a cab.

Since the New York Times hasn’t called yet for my review (I’m waiting), like all blogs in the world, here is my opinion:

Gone is the utilitarian stencil “N.Y.C. Taxi” and cab plate number, a solid block of text on a field of yellow. In its place is a NYC Taxi logo many magnitudes larger than it needs to be and miniscule chamfered-corner fare box which, located on the passenger rear doors where they should be. The relative sizes of both elements give prominence and importance to useless information: we already know it is a NYC Taxi; it is yellow, has a cab light and drives erratically. The old fare box, while utilitarian, was quick and easy to read and was given proper prominence (if not the correct location) on the cab doors. This is a failure of information design, letting logos obscure actual information.

The new design looks instantly dated, thanks to the use of chamfered corners and the vaguely rounded “A” reminiscent of every Web 2.0 logo. This is not a timeless design. This logo redesign is just like the Garden in Transit program which put purple flower decals on the hoods destroy the simplicity of the yellow cab.
Let cabs be cabs and bring the stencil back.

Wednesday Links

Guggenheim ExteriorGuggenheim Exterior, originally uploaded by plemeljr