STORY

A subway station is full of interesting things to look at. The graphics are markedly consistent, with just enough oddities to make the whole thing interesting, and they have become nearly as pervasive a symbol of New York City as yellow taxicabs and Art Deco skyscrapers. It took decades to make that consistency happen, and the 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, reproduced in these pages, is where the whole project began. The NYCTA Graphics Standards Manual contains scans of Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda's (Unimark) modernist masterpiece. The manual describes the design and construction for the iconic NYC subway signs that we still see and use today, but above all it's a beautiful and important piece of design history.