The Royal Mail recently commem orated one of the UK’s greatest works of visual infor mation design when Harry Beck’s London Underground diagram was included for the first time on a British postage stamp writes Mark Ovenden. The impor tance of Beck’s rectilinear, topologic 1933 diagram is widely recognised and praised by graphic designers. Many wonder why Beck never extended his ideas outside London. The answer is, he did – to the nearest major subway network to London: Paris.
Full story and lots of fantastic images, plus a neat history of the development of underground maps, is at the Creative Review (via kottke).
arbitrary constant 