The first interview I ever did as a filmmaker was with Massimo Vignelli back in 2006, for my film Helvetica. During that interview we talked about the NYC Subway Map that he co-designed and the controversy surrounding its release in 1972.
Felipe Memoria at design firm Work & Co reached out to me in 2020 and told me his company was doing a digital re-design of the map with the MTA. This “live” map would utilize new technology implemented by the MTA to give positioning data on the individual trains and reflect service changes in real time. He also told me this new map would be influenced by the classic 1972 Vignelli design. The idea of following their design process on the project and making a short film about it was too good to pass up!
The Map features Felipe Memoria, Rachel Haot, Sarah Meyer, Joshua Gee, Marcela Abbade, Karina Sirqueira, Robert Penner, and Mohan Ramaswamy. It features original music by Danz CM. Huge thanks to Work & Co, the MTA, and everyone at The Cooper Union for all their assistance on this project.
And to hear Massimo Vignelli’s take on his controversial 1972 map design, watch the full unreleased Helvetica interview here. Massimo talks about the map around the 48-minute mark.
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