Documents and presentations about TTC signage

I’ve written a number of articles and other documents about TTC signage. (Nothing is licensed under Creative Commons.)

Blog entries

I’ve written many blog entries on the subject.

Paul Arthur

I have an old article (1994) about Paul Arthur’s candidate redesign of the wayfinding on the subway. (See my page on his signage redesign.)

Presentation to the TTC

I made a presentation to the Toronto Transit Commission on 2007.01.31 on the condition of signage in the TTC. The presentation was available in four forms:

1. Five-minute presentation, which you had to be there to see
2. Online slideshow
3. Unreasonably large tagged PDF of a report I handed out to the chair, vice-chair, and acting general manager of the TTC, a rather dramatic and minimalist (also 28″-wide) photo album
4. Longer presentation at Toronto Transit Camp, which you had to be there to see

In response to my presentation, TTC commissioners ordered staff to produce a report on signage and wayfinding, which I later demolished.

Proposals

• Proposal to tear down Glencairn and Lawrence West stations and replace them with something as beautiful as Dupont (2007.11.17)
• Proposal for a design competition for Union Station (2007.12.03)
• Proposal to upgrade some Yonge-line stations with new steel plates for station identification (2007.12.03)

Letters to TTC

• “Kitsch” as applied to Pape and Museum station renovations (for real; 2008.01.21)
• Request for higher standard of drafting in TTC station renderings so they won’t look like they were drawn in crayon (2008.01.21)
• My response to the report the TTC were obliged to write on signage (after my presentation of 2007.01.31)
• A letter I filed with the TTC about irreplaceable signage in St. George station
• Call for cancellation of Museum Renaissance
  and redirection of TTC’s share of its cost into signage and wayfinding research (2007.07.09)
  • Response (2007.11.17)
• Handwritten signs are not the problem: Response to TTC report (PDF) on handwritten signs (2007.12.03)
• Claims by Gary Webster and Adam Giambrone
  that the current TTC sign “standard” is adequate (2007.07.09)

Also available

• The truth about station-domination advertising in the TTC: Did you know about one-third of people were always opposed to it?
• Notes on statements by General Manager Gary Webster on signage at the June 2007 TTC meeting
• A report (PDF) on type treatments for GO Transit, in which we proved to skeptical engineers that fonts have performance characteristics and that Helvetica performs poorly for signage. (The lesson was, of course, ignored)

Photos

There are also dozens of available photos.