NYC Compass Decal Design Competition
by Mark Denton on December 30th, 2008
The Architect’s Newspaper has a good writeup of the recent presentation of student proposals for design of a “compass decal” for the New York City Subway system. The purpose of the decals is to help help subway system users with the sometimes daunting task of orienting themselves when they returned to street level from above- or below-ground stations.
The student work, which is on display at AIA New York’s Center for Architecture through January 24, includes some intriguing ideas, particularly the attempts to utilize and expand upon the wayfinding tools that people use naturally, such as architectural landmarks and neighborhood boundaries.
This New York Times article from 2007 provides some background on the pilot program that was the impetus for this competition, and also has an image of the rather uninspired original version of the decal.