‘Designology’ at the London Transport Museum is a year-long programme of events, focussed around design and London’s transport – exploring how design makes London better. Subject matters include wayfinding, mapping, data, social behaviour, service design, street furniture design as well as branding and principles of one of the leading design systems in the world.
It’s been ages since I visited the London Transport Museum, so I was really pleased to go again, and booked specifically for the Late Debate, which also gets you entry to the Designology studios.
Until you see all of the design system and principles together, you don’t fully realise how the persuasive identity of London’s transport system is actually, in large part, the visual identity and language of London.
All Londoners and visitors know the iconic typeface and brand assets, but seeing it there together, on signage, bus stops, and literature – in it’s earliest form and in modern digital – you get a true sense of how well this important London artefact has been cared for and protected, and how it is still as vital and relevent today as it ever was.
It was fascinating to see original handrawn/marked up fonts.
And seeing individual pieces of film brought back memories from my print design and production days.
I don’t know if there is any urban design language that is as influential as the London one, or as recognisable. What struck me was also not just the very recognisable brand assets, but also the wealth of graphic design generated by or for London Underground/Transport for London over the years. That’s a whole separate post!
But to the debates. So, the talks started at 8pm for an hour, and there were 4 to choose from:
Off the rails: Expert historians, authors and contemporary designers explore designing for the railways, sharing from the past and debating recommendations for the future.
Secrets behind the Tube map: Tube obsessed Londonist Video Journalist Geoff Marshall to explores the history, anomalies and oddities of our much loved London Underground Map.
Delight and surprise: Explore how our journeys can be impacted through moments of delight and surprise, and how such moments make London a world class leader in design.
Connect or forget: New London Architecture and a panel of expert speakers consider how the Tube and wider transport network has the ability to connect or forget regions and communities.
We chose the ‘Delight and surprise’ stream and heard interesting presentations from the team who curate the Art on the Underground programme, a new innovative scheme to use plants and bio installations in tube stations, how advertising has changed over the years and about how events are an important element in community programmes. The presenters were very interesting, especially the Art on the Underground one, but it never really felt like a properly curated debate. There wasn’t really enough in the subject matter to debate and with an hour to cover 4 topics it didn’t feel like any went into enough depth to get a robust discussion going.
That said, I really enjoyed the evening. I got to spend time with my friend Paul, immerse myself in lovely design things and drink wine in a superb venue. What’s not to like 🙂