London Undergrond map

I've blogged this one before. It actually was one of my first posts. But I thought I'd do a reblog. The first time I was in London - at the age of 16 - fell in love with the London Underground; the trains, stations, the roundel, the way signing, the typography and the font by Edward Johnston. But my special interest goes out to the London Undergrond map, the schematic diagram of lines. Information design at its best.

The map I have is from 1978 and if you're a little familiar with the map it's quite easy to see the style of the map hasn't changed much. 

The first diagrammatic map of London's tube was designed in 1931 by Harry Beck, an engineer. It was an uncommissioned spare-time project for him. His diagrammatic approach was groundbreaking and his design concept has been widely adopted for other network maps around the world.