Dwell: The PentaCityGroup will eventually expand the system to include new print, mobile, and digital media applications. In a way, you've designed a new user interface and experience for New York through the system. How has the cross-over between print and digital impacted the WalkNYC graphic language? What does the language "say" about New York? 

Bierut: In general we tried to make the system seem clean and logical and authoritative. It looks "New York" to people, I think, because of the very intentional visual connections we tried to make to the subway graphics. It's possible to do an information system that has lots of personality: up at Wave Hill park in the Bronx, for instance, we had artist Maira Kalman paint a map that's completely fanciful and perfectly suited to that place. But here we wanted something that almost felt like part of the city's infrastructure. Already the map's been adapted for CitiBike, and we're in conversations to adapt them for the neighborhood maps in subway stations. Eventually it may be that this map is simply "the way New York looks," which would be great.  Photo 8 of 9 in How New York City Developed its Wayfinding Signage by Diana Budds

How New York City Developed its Wayfinding Signage

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Dwell: The PentaCityGroup will eventually expand the system to include new print, mobile, and digital media applications. In a way, you've designed a new user interface and experience for New York through the system. How has the cross-over between print and digital impacted the WalkNYC graphic language? What does the language "say" about New York?

Bierut: In general we tried to make the system seem clean and logical and authoritative. It looks "New York" to people, I think, because of the very intentional visual connections we tried to make to the subway graphics. It's possible to do an information system that has lots of personality: up at Wave Hill park in the Bronx, for instance, we had artist Maira Kalman paint a map that's completely fanciful and perfectly suited to that place. But here we wanted something that almost felt like part of the city's infrastructure. Already the map's been adapted for CitiBike, and we're in conversations to adapt them for the neighborhood maps in subway stations. Eventually it may be that this map is simply "the way New York looks," which would be great.