Read more about the project on Fast Company, Bloomberg, Mashable, and Gothamist
I created an online archive of New York City subway station signs, photographing and re-illustrating all 469 stations across the five boroughs.
New York's subway signs are easy to overlook, but each station has its own typography, tile patterns, and visual character. I wanted to document these details and create a way for people to explore the system beyond simply getting from one stop to another.
I rode every train line through all five boroughs, photographing station signs and researching how the lines connected across the city. I also documented the time, distance, and number of stations covered as I worked toward completing the project.
I turned the collection into an interactive online gallery, combining hand-built station illustrations with a map and filtering system that let people explore the subway by borough, train line, and station.
Webby Winner, W3, Net Magazine, Pixel Awards, Communication Arts
PressMashable, NY Times, Fast Company, PSFK, Daily Mail, The Atlantic, Complex, Gothamist, Gizmodo
The next step of the project was to re-illustrate all the signs. To be honest, there was no easy way around this. Each letter was created tile by tile to form the name of the station. With 469 stations, I broke the process by focusing on launching one borough per year.
The New York subway runs on a very large and complex system. To mimic this experience, I researched each line carefully to see if that particular train ran through multiple boroughs or just one.
I also created a filter system with the idea to keep users engaged on the site and allow them to skip around to other boroughs and tracks without having to start over from the homepage.
