Something Gold, Something Blue
New Yorkers are used to seeing great art on the subway; too bad the MetroCard is so uninspiring.
The transit card — designed by Siegel+Gale for its 1994 debut and made mandatory by 2003 — has changed color, but not much else. If you've got a pocket full of them — weekly, monthly, pay-as-you-go, Fun Pass, flat broke — it's anyone’s best guess which is which. (Only the Single Ride has its own look.) Plus, unless you're in the station, it's a mystery how much you've got left to spend on public-transit joyrides.
And all that wasted space! A few ideas to replace the current Helvetica from a galaxy far, far away: free-event listings; photos and drawings of famous New Yorkers; history games and challenges; comics, poems, and serial novels by local artists; health tips; contact info for city services.
Since the MTA and Port Authority are engineering a switch to “smart cards,” how about a citywide design competition?
New Yorkers have no shortage of ingenious subway-themed ideas, from Ben Rubin’s proposals for musical card-swipe and train-arrival sounds, to MetroCard sculptures by artists and employee-artists, to clever workplace distractions. Printing a handy map of each borough on each card — collect them all! — would be a perfect start.
Emily Gordon is managing editor at PRINT magazine and editor of the blog Emdashes. Koren Shadmi is an illustrator living and working in Brooklyn. His graphic collections, Cours Interieures and Dissymétries have been published in France.
Remarks 29 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
Karen Horton
A city-wide design competition would be a great idea, as well as utilizing the space on the card for useful information or historical tidbits.
Maybe if the cards were attractive/useful you would see less of them being littered onto the ground.
Tom Watson
I've just spent my first two days in New York and I definitely noticed how unattractive and uninformative the Metro cards were. They seem to be littered all over the stations too, so making them collectable might help a bit with that. Great ideas!
Chris Wilson
I think Tom is right. There needs to be more of an incentive for commuters to reload the cards. That alone could reduce consumption and save the city money on having to reproduce so many cards.
A better design would be a start. I think it would be awesome to have a couple of different designs for Metro commuters to choose from. By giving people a choice you are making the card something personal.
Tanner Christensen
The current card design is hideous.
But really: first the taxi cabs, now the metro cards? It seems like New York is having an identity crisis as of late. You would think with all of the designers living there someone would be able to do something decent.
ryan sims
Great proposal.
After living in New York, I grew to accept the MetroCards. I wouldn't say they're "hideous", but there's a lot of information missing and a redesign could solve some problems. Not knowing the type of card I had in my pocket was the biggest gripe - unlimited vs. pay-as-you-go. Also knowing the expiration date of the monthly pass would be helpful. And putting a number I could call to find out about schedule delays.
@ Tom & Chris: One reason they might be littered all over the platforms isn't because people don't cherish them. It's because the ticketing machines don't allow a user to refill a monthly pass (or at least I never figured how to refill one). Once it's expired, you have to buy another one. Create the best designed card in the world, and unless you change that system, they'll still be littered on the platform.
Paul
Hey,
Went to NY for the first time after SND Boston conference. As much as I loved NY, the cards did surprise me, for being remarkably forgettable.
Still, I love these social history design discussions, fantastic.
As an aside, the day I was leaving NY I read an article on how transit officials were considering adding compasses to the exit of each subway to help people navigate around.
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-subway-compass1017,0,560071.story
I think it's a great idea, as NY is the only city so far to have me stumped as to where to go.
ryan sims
Paul: A picture of the subway compass is available here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/nyregion/17direction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It's a good piece and it indicates the amount of confusion people have - no matter how long they've lived in New York, as to which way is North (or South, East, West).
Sean Madden
There are pieces of this article that are good. The problem I have with it is how positively NY-centric it is. Dan's article applies to everyone, this article applies to designers frustrated with the Metro Card. To the publishers: not everyone lives in New York and I'm not sure using 25% of the article calling for a local design competition is the best use of this promising medium.
Tanner Christensen
Mr. Madden has an interesting point, but I disagree. While the face-value of Emily's message is all about New York, I think there is an underlying purpose all designers can relate to.
I just don't quite know what it is.
Kelly
I agree, but more with the aspect of the card never changing. There's nothing worse (or more like a Visa Checkcard commercial) than having a few in your pocket and not knowing which is the one for that month. A consistently changing card would be a nice (and functional) change.
ParisBreakfasts
Yes PLEASE
How do we do something about this dreary Metro card.
Especially with the dollar on the skids and our streets full of Euro-dash, we need to impress them with our wit and innovation...
Something besides our FAB bargain basement prices.
Anyway it would be more FUN.
The present card is soooo boring :(
Plus they could become a collectible!
Michael McWatters
If you've ever swiped a monthly card twice in too short a span of time, you know it doesn't work...you have to wait until enough time has elapsed (I think it's 18 minutes).
What if the monthly cards changed color when swiped, slowly returning to a "fresh" state.
:)
Jeremy Zilar
A few months ago, I wrote about the lack of any distinguishing features on the MTA metrocards and their design.
Then I began to think about how much it would actually cost to re-design the card & change it on a regular basis. I agree, it could use a single change, but to make it a platform for continuous design would have to be well thought out, and highly accessible to as many riders as possible.
brian
I know you guys are IE snobs, but your awesome tableless completely standards compliant mess doesn't work in IE7. It's all F-ed up.
James
How about a collaborative space where we can start posting ideas? I suggest a flickr group.
Emily Gordon
Thanks for all these excellent comments. Jeremy's point is very well taken, and I like the Flickr group idea. Let's dazzle the MTA! Sean, you're right that it's mostly New Yorkers, commuters, and tourists who live with this ever-present design, but I think the argument for more engaging and inspiring (not to mention practical) visual options for transit cards extends to other cities as well. Are there transit systems where riders are offered something innovative on the cards themselves? And James, want to get that group jump-started?
Sean Madden
Hey Emily,
I am in total agreement with you. My main point is really that you used 50/200 words calling for a design contest in NY. This, I fear, is not as abstractable (I may have made that word up). My comment was more about fleshing out the medium, really taking the 200 word count limit to its stretching point without breaking it. No doubt, many municipalities could use design help across their entire public service offering. As you can surely see in the comments, most of the support is rallying around fixing the NYC transit system, not discussing the woeful lack of purposeful design inherent in most utilities.
Jeremy Zilar
I'm all for the flickr group. Emily, you should start it! I think it would be fantastic to start generating some buzz around this. I bet it would even get picked up on the blogs around the city.
And besides, progress is only progress when it looks good, right? Maybe this is just the right project to allocate funds towards.
Jochen
I think it would be a great idea to connect this with similar projekts like
www.icon-message.com (200 visual words, fitting with 25x50 pixel into the MSN Messenger) or
www.icon-language.com (200 pictograms and icons in an OpenType font)
hellyeahdude.com
This is a very beautiful idea. Although, I think there could be some more inspiration in these cards. There is so much room for possibilities. Very interesting, what if the cards featured different prints of various artists!
David
In Montreal where I used to live they have a different design every month for the monthly pass, which is plastic, and every week for the paper weekly pass. They are often appealing, or odd, or ugly, but they also serve the purpose this discussion has brought about, basically to know which one is which. It also reverses the graphic for the reduced fare cards. Image of the cards.
The problem with their system is that you cannot buy a weekly pass mid-week, or a monthly pass mid-month, which is one of the great thing you can in NYC. I too when I moved here was a bit appalled at this design, but the flexibility of the card wins me over, especially when i go back to Montreal. I think a design or art competition for the cards is a good idea, but undoubtedly having informational design as well would be too arduous to implement.
So in 'brief': PRETTY DESIGNS = POSSIBLE, SMART DESIGNS = NOT DESIRABLE
Josh
I have a great idea for some photography that could appear on the metro cards.
I found this book on Chronicle Books. In 1997, author Christopher Payne was introduced to the substations by an official of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Power Division. Since then, he has rushed to photograph, draw, and write the history of these amazing buildings and their machines before they are completely gone.
Using historical imagery could be one facet to explore for these card designs.
Emily Gordon
Great suggestion. As it happens, I know Payne, and think his photographs of New York transit and other architecture would make striking, stylish MetroCard designs. I bet Forgotten New York would enjoy the challenge of coming up with some ideas, too!
Dinu
Is the site on hiatus? Miss all the postings.
Shane N.
Something old, Nothing new.
Anything on the horizon?
Ross
I need updates. A Brief Message is too good to be on hiatus.
felix sockwell
great idea. the possibilities are endless. riders love something to read on the subway. to keep it simple/ easy to print, I'd suggest a blank card that automatically prints the front page headlines of the Post on one side and the Times on the other. If you want pictures, hey, over there is another machine for that too.
Emily Gordon
Thanks Felix! I'm picturing those smiling, waving newspaper photos from Harry Potter.
Or, taking a cue from Chip Kidd's Message, the tempting first chapter of a much-loved book or two could meander across the card during one's subway commute. Then riders, unable to resist, will go buy the books.
Patrick
THE SERIF held an open call for redesigns of the London Underground TravelCard tickets back in June. They received a lot of terrific designs from all over the world.