New York typography

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New York City Typography
Typography refers to the design and visual appearance of printed text. Factors such as the occasion, intended message and audience play an important role when deciding on the most appropriate typography. Typography can be used to represent a number of topics, themes and important features such as cities. In line with typography, Helvetica is the topic that best represents New York City.
The name New York City is synonymous with Subways as it has one of the most complex subway systems in the world. Due to its complexity, the New York subway system has various signs intended to guide, warn and inform subway users on various matters. These signs also contain station names and useful information such as the train arrival and departure time. In 1967, the decision to merge Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit lines were met with new challenges (Shaw n.p.). The regular subways users of either line became confused due to the addition of new, unfamiliar signs alongside the old ones.
Although these signs were meant to guide the users, different newspapers reported how regular subway users became lost and found themselves in unfamiliar regions of the city. For this reason, the New York transit authority hired two designers, Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda the task of creating an articulate and coherent visual language for the subways in 1970. For these signs, Vignelli and Noorda recommended a sans-serif typeface, which saw the use of the Standard typography, a Helvetica predecessor.

It was, however, not until the early 1980s that the use of Helvetica became preferable over Standard. Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda are the designers of this typography and the entire New York Subway visual language.
In conclusion, Helvetica best represents New York City for a number of reasons. First, it is the most used font in the New York Subway system. The subway is system is one of the city’s identities because most of its residents have used and are familiar with it. Therefore, the subway system on its own represents the city in the aspect of transport and identity. Secondly, the use of Helvetica across the entire city will be convenient in working towards the achievement of the initial goals of establishing neatness and uniformity throughout by the use of standard typography and design of printed matter.
Work Cited
Shaw, Paul. “Helvetica and the New York Subway System.” MIT Press. N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web.