new york subway

The New York Times, 2 July 2008

Check out this blog — soo cool.

You don’t even have to read it. In fact, if you live (or ever have lived) in New York, refrain from sneaking a peek at the captions. Then, when you’ve made your way through all of them, go back — read his story.

As of late, I’ve been mesmerized by the language of the subway. Before I lived here, I felt lost . . . even amongst the colors and clear language.

It isn’t until after you’ve submersed yourself into the sub-terrain, directional language that you truly understand and appreciate how omnipresent yet minimal they are.

I’ve seen many designs that piggy-back on the idea of the colored routes of the NYC subway system, but using the letters, numbers and circles of each “line” is relatively untouched.

Additionally, the ironic tone in each of these strikes me as particularly cool. This morning, someone yelled, “Good morning, asshole!” See, people are used to incorporating irony in their words and actions mid-commute . . . so the tone is very fitting.

Finally, I like the chalkboard background. It sets the scene of “we’re going to learn about grammar today, kids.” However, instead of teaching us a new truth of the world, it’s holding up a mirror for us to learn from our own life.

And for all those reasons, bravo.