{"id":1850,"date":"2008-01-12T16:20:42","date_gmt":"2008-01-12T21:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/maps-and-legends\/"},"modified":"2008-01-12T16:16:58","modified_gmt":"2008-01-12T21:16:58","slug":"maps-and-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/maps-and-legends","title":{"rendered":"Maps and Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite recent essays was about a subway map. The original version of it<\/a> was published at Design Observer in 2004, but the author expanded it for that book I keep mentioning all the goddamn time<\/a>, which I read last year. The great thing about the online version is that it has reader comments, including a neat exchange between the author and one of the 2Blowhards about visual poetry and the utility of design.<\/p>\n

Bierut’s essay was the first exposure I had to the work of Massimo Vignelli<\/a>. That is, it was the first time I’d read his name; it turns out I’ve seen his work all my life, in various corporate logos and other pieces of design: Bloomingdale’s, American Airlines, Bennetton, and others.<\/p>\n

This morning, taking a break from playing around with the iPhone (a.k.a. one of the finest pieces of design<\/a> I’ve ever seen), I caught up with New York Magazine<\/a>‘s issue on Design Revolutionaries, which I’ve been saving for a while (for some reason, the website refers to it as “Home Design”). It turned out that its feature on Vignelli and his wife Lella<\/a> was minuscule — Martha Stewart received a much longer piece<\/a> — but it did include a large replica of the (in)famous subway map, so that was nice to see.<\/p>\n

More importantly, its splash-photo shows that the Vignellis’ home on the upper east side is the greatest apartment I’ve ever seen in my life<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"Vignellis<\/p>\n

(Photo by Dean Kaufman)<\/em><\/p>\n

Seriously: those windows are TWENTY FEET HIGH<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, even though it’s not like he needs my money, I ordered a copy of Vignelli From A to Z<\/a> off Amazon today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite recent essays was about a subway map. The original version of it was published at Design Observer in 2004, but the author expanded it for that book I keep mentioning all the goddamn time, which I read last year. The great thing about the online version is that it has reader … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Maps and Legends”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,46,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-design","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-tQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":739,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/things-are-different","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":0},"title":"Things are different","author":"Gil","date":"November 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Walking through an electronics store here in Madrid yesterday, I noticed that the face on the box of the NBA Live 2K6 videogame is native Spaniard Pau Gasol.The clerk told me that Gasol actually helped design this year's version of the game, now, when the score is close in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Madrid"","block_context":{"text":"Madrid","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/madrid"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1602,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-27-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 27, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"July 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a fresh batch of links, dear readers! 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