Massimo Vignelli New York Subway Sign for Unimark (C. 1968)

Details

Description

On permanent display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New York Museum of Modern Art is … Read more On permanent display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New York Museum of Modern Art is Massimo Vignelli's famed contribution to modernist design: his 1966-1970 redesign, with Bob Noorda of Unimark Associates, of the New York City subway system. Unimark was contracted to rethink the entire sign language of the subway system from maps to directional signs, and today the design has proven so successful that the entire system still follows the general Helvetica-laden design Vignelli originally sought. His 'Unigrid' design of a black bar above a white background has also been preserved, in inverted colors, as the iconic white stripe above a black background with Helvetica text that today symbolizes the subway system.

While Vignelli's maps are frequently traded on the market and his Graphic Standards Manual has been re-introduced as part of a widely-successful reprinting campaign, the physical elements of his redesign are few and far between. Even at the MoMa and SF MoMa, only later iterations of Vignelli's signs are on display, featuring the inverted white on black design that was put into use in roughly 1974. Only the Vignelli Archives in Rochester feature his original signs, which were stunning white enamel on steel pieces, featuring black text set in Standard Medium. Even the New York City Transit Museum lacks any of Vignelli's original signs in its collection.

This is one such original sign, installed on the "F" train line in a station somewhere in Manhattan or Queens. It details services to the famed Coney Island and is constructed as one of Vignelli's famed modular signs, set to be installed on a steel girder beside other signs detailing the train service. If one peruses the Vignelli sign manual, this is the exact design detailed (p. 61-62 of the 1970 Graphic Standards Manual, part of the Cooper Union collection).

Strikingly few examples of these early signs exist, and few are as well-preserved as this, which only has light scratching on the black matte paint on top and minor scuffs to the bottom of the enamel. The reason for this condition is that this sign survived under two different layers of vinyl for a few decades on the subway system as it was shifted, in modular fashion, from one line to another. When those vinyl layers were removed, the original text was in pristine condition. The service pattern and style of this sign date it to roughly 1968. Within a couple years, signs were being printed in white on black, and before Vignelli's arrival in 1966-1967, signs were set in any random style of hand-cut lettering on tin.

This is one of the rarest early pieces of one of the most successful urban modernist designers. Its condition is excellent, and it is unlikely another such sign will be found. See less