OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web London Underground Documentary

I found this documentary detailing the history of the London Underground. It is really interesting and informed me about a lot of things I do not know about the tube. I have looked at this specifically because I plan to create a video about the tube history for my website. 

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My Notes:

• Farringdon station was the first station to get an underground train
• The tracks are 630 volts
• Farringdon is prone to flooding due to it being built on the banks of a river
• 1850's London faced a problem of too much traffic
• A Law was passed during the boom time to stop stations being built in central areas. As a result of this the stations were built on the edges of London (Paddington, Euston, Kings Cross)
• With no access to the square mile the streets were full of people
• Charles Pearson who was the solicitor for London had concerns about the transport system 
• With no transport in or out of the city workers were placed in slums, they dreamed of the countryside
• In 1845 Pearson had an idea to have trains underground
• He tried to make this happen for 8 years and was unsuccessful
• In 1863 he changed his tactics and the house of commons allowed the railway to be built
• This saw the formation of the Metropolitan railway group which was a private
• The building was a difficult process 
• The first lines were built using the cut and cover method
• This process cleaned out the slums because they had to move them to build the tube
• This was a positive for the middle class but not so much for the lower class
• The line was formed from Paddington east to Farringdon
• Paddington - Euston - Kings Cross - Farringdon
• There were many options for the trains but the company chose the cheapest option - steam
• The prime minister was invited to the grand opening but declined
• They invited as many politicians and investors as they could to a banquet at Farringdon
• 9th 1863 the first ever train pulled away from Farringdon
• On the first day Farringdon had to close due to over crowding
• In its first year the tube was in such high demand that services were increased to every 10 mins
• The more trains meant more sulphur in the atmosphere
• They ran a PR campaign promoting steam and saying it was good for passengers health
• 1868 the District railway opened
• Rival companies joined and drew a circle around london in 1884
• The lines were all shallow due to the way they were built
• 1890 a revolutionary piece of equipment changed that
• The great head shield was a tunnelling machine pioneered by the Brunell family
• This machine meant it was able to dig through clay
• Labourers would crouch in the compartments and dig, this machine would then move along the tunnel which would increase in size
• 1890 the City and South London railway pioneered that machine digging the first tunnel under the river Thames from Stockwell to the city
• There are dozens of unused stations on the tube
• Some even have the old war posters on the walls
• More and more companies opening new lines
• Waterloo and City Line 1898, Central 1900
• Electricity drove the expansion of the tube
• Trains ran on electricity instead of steam
• Tiling patterns became very important in identifying stations
• People could not read and write in this time so they used the colours of the tiles to identify the stations
• Companies who had lines did not work together so a separate ticket needed to be bought to cross lines
• 1933 the London Transport was formed which brought all the companies together
• Design was made the same so that it was consistent
• This was a visionary design change
• The London underground is an international brand
• 1929 - 55 Broadway was built as the headquarters for the London Underground
• Frank Pick was the director at the time
• He went all out on the design of the tube
• The circle and cross logo has now been the logo since 1908
• There are rumours that it was stolen from the Paris tube
• Pick had ideas to boost sales and built 7 more stations which were overground lines. These gave easy access to the underground from various locations
• The tube created new suburbs and extended the London borders
• The tube map was a complicated tangle of different lines
• Harry Beck who was a electrical draftsmen took it upon himself to design a new map
• He focused on the joins and where the lines clashed
• He made sure that every angle was either 45 degrees or 90 degrees
• Ken Garland was friends with him and has been left with the original design from Harry Beck. He called it amazingly elegant
• In 1932 Harry Beck was unemployed 
• He sent the design to the underground the plan and it was rejected 
• He went back and they eventually accepted it but wrote a note on the back asking for comments from the public about the design
• The public loved it and it went very quickly
• They printed a trial run in 4 stations and it was very popular
• The map was drafted by hand by Harry Beck
• 1950 disagreements were made by Harry and the TFL about geography
• 1960 Beck went to a station and was surprised when he was met by a version of his map which was signed by someone else
• He carried on sending maps in they were rejected
• 1997 he was credited on the map from then to present
• Map changes every 6 months
• Beck's design influenced metro system maps globally
• When the car became more popular the tube suffered 
• 1956 they came up with a creative solution
• They recruited immigrants from Jamaica and Barcelona and put them up in hostels
• Racism became a problem and they were not allowed to stay in b&b's
• 1982 the numbers of passengers on the tube dropped 30%
• It became a source of inspiration for photographers
• 18th November 1987 at Kings Cross station there was a fire which killed 31 people. The heat was so intense that it melted the ticket machines
• The fire was caused by a cigarette which was stubbed out, this would not have been such a huge problem had the escalators been cleaned and were they not full of flammable liquids
• The tube is now undergoing a £1bn upgrade
• The oldest station (Farringdon) will soon become the newest
• It is predicted that in 2018 Farringdon will have 150 trains per hour

OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web London Underground Map Through the Years

This timeline illustrates how the tube map has changed throughout the past 90 years. There is a clear development within the design doing the 1930's which is when Harry Beck first designed his own version of the map. 

1908

1921

1933

1937

1937

1938

1938 Version 2

1945

1948

1951

1951

1958

1960

1964

1968

1970

1972

1977

1985

1987

1994

1998

1999

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OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web London Underground Map Design

Harry Beck's tube map revolutionised the world of graphic design and specifically information graphics and way finding. I have been looking over the past few months at design which is inspired by the Harry Beck tube map and I have found that many other tube systems have used the design as a template for their own way finding. There are also some artists and designers who have taken inspiration from the tube map design. I personally love the tube map design and the functionality of the simple and clean lines. I have added images of the work I have found interesting over the time I have been looking into this subject. 

I found this brain very interesting, the fact that Harry Beck's concept has been altered to represent something so vital as a brain is very interesting and is also a credit to the design itself. I think that the different coloured lines in this brain would be great to educate people about their own brain. 

The brain concept was an advertisement by HSBC. 

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The Manhattan tube map is said to be greatly inspired by Harry Beck's tube map. Though the layout is significantly different due to geographical location there is a clear link to Harry Beck's design. This design is an adaptation of the Manhattan tube map which has been produced in different colours to act as a piece of design rather than something which people will use. 

OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web Underground Research

The theme of my website is the tube, I want to make my site very info-graphic lead and visual because of the sheer amount of information I have to say. I was told about an info-graphic which had been produced to mark the 150 year anniversary of the tube by one of the designers at Enjoy Digital in Leeds. 

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I really like this info-graphic and the style which is used to illustrate information. One of my reservations about this brief is the fact that the tube is such a recognisable piece of graphic design that it will not be made my own as it is very hard to stray from the original idea. This info-graphic uses the tube design and is also very different with the images it uses. 

I think this info-graphic is really interesting and the continuous line is very fitting with the design of the tube map. This concept is something I would really like to use for my website because I think it is a good way to illustrate the history of the tube in a visually pleasing way. 

I personally love the idea of having the information flowing in this way because it makes something which is quite dry in content interesting. It is fascinating to me that something so simple as image can transform a piece of information and make it interesting and engaging. 

OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web

A glimpse at the new tube trains, exhibition in London

Armpits in your face and overcrowded carriages could be consigned to history with the next generation of state-of-the-art Tube trains.

Built by German engineering firm Siemens, the Inspiro concept trains are fully air conditioned and a lot more spacious than the current models on the London Underground.

The Inspiro is also 30 per cent more energy efficient and 20 per cent lighter than similar modern Tube trains.

A prototype will be showcased to mark the 150th anniversary of the London Underground at the Crystal exhibition centre in the Royal Victoria Docks next week.

Siemens has hinted the futuristic trains could be built in Britain if London mayor Boris Johnson was to put in an order.

‘London, in common with many large cities around the world, faces significant transport challenges as a result of ongoing population growth and increased capacity demands,’ explained Siemens managing director Steve Scrimshaw.

‘Our exhibition highlights some of the innovations that can be considered by cities to help their metro systems tackle these issues and help passengers benefit from an improved travel experience.’

Sam Mullins, London Transport Museum director, added: ‘Over this last year the London Transport Museum, with Siemens and CBSO, has been exploring the fascinating history of underground train travel, which began 150 years ago in London.

‘Underground railways are now a feature of many of the world’s major cities, a number of which are now looking to the next generation of underground travel and how the type of technology showcased at Going Underground can play a part in the creation of the metros of the future.’

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