Since today is the 150th anniversary of the London Underground I thought I’d have a quick look into the evolution of the design around the London Underground.
The early rounded introduced in 1908
In 1913 typographer Edward Johnston was commissioned to design the typeface for the Underground, which called for reworking of the roundel design.
The red circle replaced the solid red disc and the underground symbol was born.
The new roundel c.1918
London Underground posters from the 1930′s
The symbol has since become widely recognised and celebrated as an identity icon of London.
The vast number of Underground stations are each unique and different, Tottenham Court Road is my favourite featuring a thousand square miles of mosaic installed in the 1980′s by Eduardo Paolozzi.
To read more about the evolution of the London Underground click here
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Wonderful posters that are an inspiration even to modern designers! I referred to one of the posters in my recent blog post but couldn’t find an image to go with it until I saw this post – I have linked to the image and the post – many thanks.