Since a young age, I have always had a particular interest and love for the design of the London Tube Map, by Harry Beck, 1933. As I have been travelling back and forth between London over the past few weeks, I have used the tube map and the tube itself many times over the last few weeks which has re sparked my love for its iconic design and made it relevant.

A bit about the London Underground map and its creator: Harry Beck was originally an electrical draughtsman, come graphic designer who produced the simplistic but beautiful design all the way back in 1933, where it is now recognised across the world and the style has been copied/used/inspired by the likes of many countries. The map doesn’t emphasis accuracy in location and geographical distance between stations on the map, but instead Beck based the design on circuit diagrams he drew when he was an electrical draughtsman.

The reason I love this iconic design so much, is although it is so simple, clear and practical and is used by thousands of people in every day life, to me it is also a piece of artwork. It can be called simplistic in terms of use, but really when I look at it I think it is extremely detailed and dynamic, where an extreme amount of thought has been put into the layout and positioning of the train lines and the names of each station.

I think that the use of different colours for each train line in itself just makes the design colourful and fun and cheery, like in my eyes I don’t view it in a negative and boring way in which I might with a different kind of map, I don’t see it as a chore to use or work with or look at, but instead a piece of artwork and design (which it is.)