CityRealty Insider > Subway Signs: Remembering a Designer's Vision

Subway Signs: Remembering a Designer's Vision

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

A designer’s bold, modernist vision still guides city life.

The recent passing of graphic designer Bob Noorda, 82, (via NY Times) brought recognition to a bit of New York City life that we see every day, reminding us of the origin of the clean graphics and clear lettering that mark the city’s subway stations. Noorda was instrumental to the introduction of a new, modern look to the New York City subway system signage in the 1960s.

With his design firm, Unimark International, the designer made a case for a cleaner font family (Helvetica) and a more unified, logical system of identification for the system’s current hodgepodge of lettering and design on signs indicating stations and train lines. Though his designs weren’t adopted immediately (Helvetica, still a favorite of font geeks and designers, was slow to catch on), the easy-on-the-eyes station signs and circular subway line symbols are the direct descendants of his vision.

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