One of the greatest pieces of visual communication is the London tube map.
I never really appreciated it until I was taught about it, at art school.
In New York.
Cities the world over copy the basic principles of this design.
New York, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Singapore.
And yet I grew up with it, so I never thought anything of it.
What’s so good about it, it’s just a map?
Well no actually, it isn’t.
It’s not a map.
The routes that the tube lines follow, bear no relationship to where they actually go.
The distances bear no resemblance to reality either.
Even the Thames isn’t that shape in real life.
According to this ‘map’ every tube line is perfectly straight or smoothly curved.
And every line goes either vertically, horizontally, or 45 degrees.
No variaton.
Now of course that isn’t anything like the reality.
If you’ve ever seen a map of the actual tube lines, it’s like a cross between a spider’s web and a cracked windscreen.
But the man who designed this map wasn’t a cartographer.
He wasn’t even a graphic designer.
He was a draughtsman, called Harry Beck.
So he didn’t do a map, or an attractive layout.
He did a wiring diagram.
If you’ve ever tried to trace the electrics on a car you’ll know what I mean.
The diagram doesn’t show you an accurate drawing of the route of the wire.
It shows you a start point at (say) the battery.
Then a straight line to the end point at (say) a bulb.
You don’t need a map, you go to the car and trace the actual route yourself.
That’s how the tube ‘map’ works.
You’re underground, everything is identical: just a tunnel.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on above.
You need to know the start point, and the finish point.
In the simplest possible way.
What an absolutely stunningly brilliant piece of thinking.
The tube map isn’t a map.
It’s a wiring diagram.
Before he did it, it was a ridiculous thing to even suggest.
Since he did it, everyone in the world copied it.
Isn’t that a great lesson for us?
People can’t agree with a great thought before it’s done.
Because, if it’s a great thought, it breaks the rules.
And you can’t agree that breaking the rules makes sense because it doesn’t.
Following the rules makes sense.
That’s why we have rules.
Breaking the rules won’t work.
Until it does.
Then everyone can agree.
And, of course, it’s the same in advertising.
Breaking the rules won’t get any agreement.
If you ask for permission you won’t get it.
But once you break the rules, and it works, people can see it makes sense.
Then that becomes part of the new rules.
Which can’t be broken.
That’s how it goes.
If you wait for permission, you’ll never get into trouble.
You can’t be wrong.
But you can’t do anything truly exciting either.
As Helmut Krone said, “If you can look at something and say ‘I like it’ then it isn’t new.”
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Interesting point, Dave.
Makes me wonder if that leaves room for agency creative reviews, where everyone from planner to CEO to cleaner has a say.
Ever notice how these days, more and more clients have encyclopaedia-like volumes of guidelines.
1. Mr. Trott, I like the way your train of thought immediately went to punching through the currently agreed upon map. A lot of folks seem to be doing their best thinking waiting on the train platform these days; was the bath tub once upon a time
2. The whole topic of cartography is right up the alley for us systems guys, and I notice a lot of map-as-art decorations in my best friend’s homes. The running joke over at MIT is the “full scale map” project.
3. The goal of your subway map (and your biz) is elimination and simplification, to better get to an endpoint. But we must remember that the valid purpose of some maps (other businesses) is just the opposite – needless complexity, misdirection, and obfuscation – to protect an endpoint. Just something to think about.
4. Good article in Wired last year (“The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn’t Just More — More Is Different”) on big data, esp. visualizing big data. The article can be found here: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_intro.
5. Also, a good reference for ideas on visual representation of data (updated regularly) is the Infosthetics dotcom site, found here: http://infosthetics.com. I go back to this site routinely for inspiration.
Cheers,
mm
Off the map here Dave but what do you think should be done about a growing culture of unpaid, unadvertised internships now increasingly required to get into competitive fields which is excluding even relatively well-off children if their parents lack the social connections to secure them. Do you think the communications/media biz is missing out on kids who are street or does it matter? Btw Ricky Tomlinson’s autobiography is an interesting read.
I started writing a reply John but it got too long.
I think it will have to be another post instead. Thanks.
I look forward to it, Dave.
There is a great comparison video somewhere online. It’s one of my favourite pieces of graphic design, I actually used it at an agency interview once.
There is an interesting question over how it distorts travel times though, accuracy versus ease of use is a never ending debate… but I struggle to respect anyone who can’t admire the brilliance of the idea!
Advice is one of the hardest things to put into practice.
When I hear a good piece of advice, I want to carry it around with me forever, but it’s not that easy.
You have to remind yourself of the advice, and this post has reminded me I was once told, “Don’t ask for permission, you can always apologise later” which is very similar.
I read once that ‘Self help books’ hardly ever work , because no matter how good the advice is, it isn’t remembered. We all want to stand out, but secretly we’d prefer to blend in.Advice is always appropriate, it falls upon the individual in which way to use it. So perhaps the self help books which never work, are because the ones reading them aren’t individually capable of using the advice, and the one’s that aren’t reading them are prospering anyway.
http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-62.html