The London Underground
Designed & Written by Quinn Noone
The London Underground
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The London Underground is a highspeed railway serving London and other countries in the United Kingdom. It first began as the Metropolitan Railway in 1863, which is the world’s first underground railway. The railway’s tunnels were not fully underground as they used the cut and cover method, which is exactly how it sounds they would dig a large hole in the ground then cover the top to give the illusion of being farther underground. Later, completely underground tunnels were created which gave the railway its nickname still said today the “Tube”. The Tube houses 270 train stations and is 250 miles in length.
At first, the tube lines were owned by many separate private companies until they all came together to form a new brand called the “Underground�. Eventually, the Underground merged with the bus systems and became the London Transport lead by the London Passenger Transport Board. At the time, British design was not popular especially with the general public and the advertisement of the railways. The posters were often very cramped with text and images causing the reader to not know where to start. When the London Passenger Transport Board came to be they recognized this issue and started to commission posters and art for the railway.
London Underground Logo Currently
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Frank Pick
One of the most famous and forgotten contributors behind the branding movement of the railway leading to its everlasting success was Frank Pick. At the time, Pick was the Chief Executive of the London Passenger Transport Board and brought together many important individuals for the remaking of the London Underground. He had a strong interest in art and design. It was his goal to rid London of its old advertising posters of the Underground. “Frank Pick was the man who commissioned some of the most recognizable icons of London Underground’s identity; the Johnston typeface, Charles Holden stations, the roundel and Harry Beck’s Tube map, to name
but a few.” (Riley) Without him this select group of people may not have ever come together to create the new face of the London Underground. Frank Pick… “had more influence on the look of twentieth-century London than any other individual. Renowned art historian Nikolaus Pevsner described Pick as “the greatest patron of the arts whom this century has so far produced in England, and indeed the ideal patron of our age.” (Riley)
FRANK PICK WAS THE MAN WHO COMMISSIONED SOME OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE ICONS OF LONDON UNDERGROUND’S IDENTITY. (RILEY)
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One of the main complaints was that it was too difficult to read the railway signs in the Underground. The first step Pick took to his rebranding was a new logo for the whole company. A simple yet pleasing logo came about from Edward Johnston in 1916. It was a red bullseye circle with a prominent blue stripe across the middle with the word “underground” centered in a sans-serif font typeface. Today, it is one of London’s most identifiable symbols. Pick also commissioned Edward Johnston a master typographer to create a font just for the London Underground. “In fact, Johnston’s typeface, regarded by many graphic and type designers as an all-time classic, is now so entrenched in the graphical make-up of London, that it has come to represent the city itself.” (EBSCOhost) The typeface is a recognizable classic and it seems to appear in more than just the London Underground signs throughout the United Kingdom. Johnston was a calligrapher and it is easily recognizable in his typeface. For example, the tops of his lowercase letters such
as the i and j end in a pointed shape on the dots much like how it would look with a calligraphy pen. Although, the typeface is still used and loved to this day it has received some criticisms. “As a typeface, it’s a bit all over the place,” Smith continues. “Some of the proportions are a bit strange -- the width of the lowercase’s’ for example, the ear of the ‘n’ or the design of the lowercase ‘a’. All these oddities would be thought of as distracting inconsistencies by today’s myriad boring type designers.” Maag also picks up on the typeface’s idiosyncrasies which he describes as “undoubtedly charming but which are perhaps a bit outdated these days”. He too mentions the lowercase ‘a’. “The end of the terminal is sheared at an angle, he says, “yet if you look at the lower case’s’, it’s more of a grotesque than a humanist form, and so technically, they don’t quite hang together. Then if you compare the lowercase ‘s’ and the uppercase ‘S’, you can see again they’re very different.
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Johnston Typeface Johnston used Trajan proportions for the caps and then did something very different with the lowercase letterforms. It’s interesting to investigate these idiosyncrasies because if you were designing a typeface today, you just wouldn’t do it, you’d make sure the caps harmonized with the lowercase letters.” (EBSCOhost) Even after the comments made by many typographers about the typeface it still remains the same. Even though times have changed, and we have gained more knowledge in skill in typography it will still remain the same because changing it would mean losing a crucial part in the Johnston typeface and a piece of history for London. Since the typeface was
specifically created for the London Underground it was not licensed to any other type foundries for quite a while. This helped the logo and its signage stand out more since you could not find the typeface anywhere else. At first the typeface was named Underground and later changed to Johnston. A refined version of the font still remains on the London Underground signs today.
London Underground Metro
The next order of business was to clean up the cluttered advertising signs of the railway. Pick personally commissioned all posters designed for the Underground. He picked the designers to reflect the design and art that was popular at the time, the designers involved were Edward McKnight Kauffer, Alfred Leete, Austin Cooper, Horace Taylor, Charles Paine, and Frederick Charles Herrick. These posters still remain highly collectable as they were a striking difference between what signage had looked like before the commissions. Most of the posters focused on the destinations of the railway instead of the actual company itself. In many of the posters you can see the logo incorporated in a subtle way. For example, being incorporated in the background or the watch on a person’s wrist. A majority of the posters were ironic or did not let you see the logo immediately.
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London Underground Signage
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The first poster featured to the right on the page is promoting the museum of natural history for South Kensington. The logo seems as if it is not present on the poster although the artist Kauffer used the circular shape of the Underground logo all over the poster. This is shown in the sky where there is what seems to be a rainbow surrounded by clouds. The mammoth in the center acts as the type “underground� on the original logo or could be considered the blue line the crosses through the circle as well.
“A Train Every 90 Seconds” London Underground Signage
11 The next poster design shown to the left by A. Games is a more simplistic approach. This is advertising the fastness of the London Underground’s trains. The first thing you see is the large red Underground logo, it does not have to be different colors or filled with the type to understand exactly what it represents. It leads your eye completely around the logo to read the type “A Train Every 90 Seconds” and then right off the page. This can be viewed as the poster itself has speed, it is going so fast the design is fading off the page or that it has made its point to the viewer and immediately leads your eye away to the London Underground.
London Underground Signage
12 The third poster to the right of the page is using the popularity of the railway to advertise a show by letting the reader know exactly when and where to go. It is a win for both of the companies as this Christmas show is advertised to any person who takes the Underground train‌ how are the people going to get to it? They will take the London Underground.
London Underground Signage
Lastly, the fourth poster by A. Games featured on the left is about another destination that London has to offer, the London Regent’s Park Zoo. This poster is not only appealing to everyone but specifically children. The geometric shapes form what looks to be a jungle cat, but it is not at all portrayed in a terrifying manner. The word zoo stands out in bright colors that differ from the mostly yellow toned image. Cleverly apart of the image is the London Underground logo once again. Even though the logo is blended more into the image it is still easily recognizable and if you are already interested in going to this zoo you should also want to get there by taking the London Underground railway.
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London Underground Signage
After Pick’s commissions of the new signage they not only became less cluttered but also advertised more than just the railway company they advertised everything London has to offer as a whole. By doing this it helps out the community, having the most popular railway advertise about any destination in the city of London will certainly boost their business. Regardless, the Underground does not need to advertise about other businesses to be successful as more often than not European’s take the train rather than driving because of the busy streets. On average about 5 million people take the railway daily.
Henry Beck
Lastly, in 1931 Henry Beck was commissioned by Frank Pick to create an easy to follow map of the London Underground. This was important to the branding of the railway because it was one of the easiest maps at the time to follow. As pictured on the next page, there are many routes and destinations of the map and it can be easily confusing to navigate. Beck’s map is clearer to the viewer because of the use of color coordination it has throughout. If the map were black and white it would be incredibly difficult to follow the lines on the map all the way through to the destination without veering off in the wrong direction. Beck’s map became a successful representation of the Underground but was not the first map to ever be color coordinated. “What set Beck’s map apart from the Underground maps that preceded it was that it bore no relationship whatsoever to the geography of the area it represented. The early maps collaboratively produced by London’s transit companies were “literal” representations of distance and topography.
Some simplification was attempted as the system expanded and the maps became increasingly complicated to render and to read. In the mid-1920s, a version of the map was produced which eliminated topographical details and used color-coding to differentiate the lines, but it remained “grounded” in geographic space. While this version may seem to have been the precursor to Beck’s map, it was distinctly unrelated in conceptual terms.” (Hadlaw) Beck’s map used common sense to show the locations of all the train stations which made it easy for the public to follow. Beck’s map was redone several times to see if it could be given a sense of actual space and geography. Even though using “common sense” was a new idea in map making that worked well for what Beck designed. The map has hundreds of pin points across a vast region, scaling it down can give us a sense of direction by following the lines on the map. Many only thought of Henry Beck for this map but he also continued to expand his work into other places such
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Max Gill
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as the Paris Metro. He was never formally recognized for the creation of this map. The Paris Metro is much harder to simplify in terms of common sense and color coordination. Although he was only really noticed for his creation of the London Underground map, it has been re-done many times and for a period of time over shadowed by a new design created by Max Gill. Henry Beck now has the most recognition for the map after he passed away in 1974. It is shown to the right of this page in a slightly more modern version, but the same concept Henry had. It is very detailed in its coloring and placement of each word, he is very careful not to clutter the space although there is a lot going on in the image it is in general a clear representation of the entire London Underground.
London Underground Map of Routes
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Today the London Underground is a landmark for the United Kingdom. The railway had many talented designers and architectural designers make it the great landmark it is today but without the commission and direction of Frank Pick it might not have turned out the way it is now. Frank Pick truly shaped the entire era of design for this railway. “Frank Pick oversaw what is widely acknowledged to be transport design’s golden age. He commissioned some of the most recognizable icons of London Underground’s identity such as the distinctive red, blue and white roundel Tube logo, the original Johnston typeface and the art deco architecture of many Underground stations designed by Charles Holden. Pick also commissioned striking advertising posters in a variety of styles, often working with famous artists of the day such as surrealist Man Ray.” (Riley) Some people feel that Frank Pick has not be recognized enough for all he has done for the London Underground. In return to that debate the city has created a memorial monument for Pick on his 75th
anniversary of his death on November 7th 1941. “A new artwork, created by Turner Prize nominated and BAFTA award-winning artists Langlands & Bell, has been installed in the circular concourse at Piccadilly Circus station. The striking wall installation, entitled Beauty < Immortality, is made of bronze, vitreous enamel, LEDs and marble, is a permanent addition to the station’s unique architecture. The artwork is 9.5m long and 2m high and features a 1.37m diameter roundel and a 1.98m high text of solid bronze letters in New Johnston typeface.” (Riley) Frank Pick will forever leave a legacy of bringing together some of the best designers of that century to create an entirely new art movement. The London Underground can stand for all the people that brought it to life and will be remembered as a place of history forever.
FRANK PICK OVERSAW WHAT IS WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE TRANSPORT DESIGNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GOLDEN AGE. (RILEY)
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Frank Pick Memorial located in London Underground Metro
References Burry, Mark. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/ad.1520. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=85920444 &site=ehost-live. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=85920445 &site=ehost-live. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018. Hadlaw, Janin. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1162/074793603762667674. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018. Ovenden, Mark. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN =505394032&site=ehost-live. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018. Riley, Kirsten. “Home.” London Transport Museum, www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/ projects-partnerships/frank-pick. Rosoff, Margaret. “`Art for the People’.” Print, vol. 51, no. 3, May 1997, p. 78. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9708301799&site=ehost-live. Ackroyd, Peter. The Secret History Beneath The Streets London Under. Peter Ackroyd. Seddon, Tony. Twentieth Century Design. Print. Images courtesy of Google Images
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