Dear MTA,
Why do you choose to torture the graphic designers of New York with the crazy “O”s in the signage on your N/W trains? Do you think this is funny? Are you laughing in the face of a system many have heralded as a design masterpiece? Did you simply replace the carefully chosen Helvetica Bold “O”s with something more standard (Arial, per se)? Or did you go a step further and rotate each letter so it sits on its side? We demand (properly typeset) answers!
Frustratingly Yours,
The Designers of New York City
OMG this is hilarious. What ARE they doing over there? I think someone at the MTA has way too much time on their hands. Is it just me or does the “a” in lean look 2 pts smaller than the other letters?
By: sheri on June 26, 2008 at 8:07 pm
WTF? Thanks a lot for pointing this out, Ellen, now it will drive me crazy every time I ride those lines. As a non-designer I never noticed it until now. ha ha.
By: The Jonester on June 26, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Their offending use of bad fontery must be to dissuade designers from leaning on the doors. Designers are notorious for leaning?
By: Marc on June 26, 2008 at 9:53 pm
The whole thing is a mess! Seriously, it must have taken someone a lot of time to work out this masterpiece.
By: ellen on June 30, 2008 at 7:19 am
I have noticed this so many times! At first I thought I was just crazy or that my eyes were playing tricks on me, but no, there are serious problems going on there. I’m sort of relieved that other people see it too. In the greater scheme of things I’d liked fixed by the MTA, though, I don’t know that this is at the top of the list…
By: Melissa Bastian on January 15, 2009 at 10:07 am