Design Myths: London Underground

In 1931 London Transport was formed to unify the 165 independent companies that made up the public transport network of trains and buses operating in London. Frank Pick would be the first director of the company and wanted to unify the image of the new company, until then each network had its own identity, and thus get the employees themselves to assimilate the concept of unity. To achieve this, he relied on the design, which would be a novelty and an innovation for the time, never done before. It was intended that the public would see from that moment on a single network that grouped all the previous ones and that would be easily recognizable. Pick would thus create the first fully integrated "corporate identity" in history.

Pick commissioned various graphic works from Edward Johnson (1972-1944) and Edward McKnight Kauffer among other designers, and architects, who would design new stations. Henry BeckIn the 1920s, one of the company's electricians, who had previously studied engineering, designed a new plan for the subway on his own initiative. The London Underground was becoming increasingly complicated and the maps of the 1920s were difficult to interpret as they attempted to depict the actual geographical positions of lines and stations. Beck redesigned the map in 1933 with a diagrammatic approach as if it were an electronic circuit that, instead of presenting the geographical distances between stations, depicted the spatial relationship from one station to another. This ingenious schematic map used color symbolically by starting from an octagonal grid and placing lines and stations at right angles or at 45 degrees, which provided greater visual clarity. In addition, the inclusion of the Thames and such famous names as Victoria Station or Piccadilly Circus gave the map an unmistakable and strong London identity that made people think of it as a map of London as they imagined it, rather than a diagram.

For his part, Edward Johnson designed a new typeface for station names and a logo for the train network; the buses, which were painted red, would have their own logo.

Information extracted from:

• 20th Century Design. Authors Charlotte & Peter Fiell. Publisher Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-5544-8
• Design Icons. The 20th Century. Editorial Eecta. ISBN978-84-8156-425-9