Archinect - News

Your next role could be designing signage and wayfinding with Pentagram

2024-06-14T14:29:00-04:00

Following our previous look at an opening for an Architect at Shigeru Ban Architects, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Signage & Wayfinding Project Manager at Pentagram.

The role, based in New York, calls for an individual to “execute signage, wayfinding, and environmental design projects,” including “understand design intent and translate schematic design into fully developed design intent documents.” Among the requirements for the role are 2-4 years of experience in Environmental Graphic Design, Interior Design, and Architecture in a similar role, alongside proficiency in CAD and 3D modeling programs, Adobe CC, Keynote, Google apps, and Microsoft Office.

Visual identity for Maker Mile - Pentagram's Astrid Stavro and team. Image courtesy of Pentagram.

Why the role interests us

The open role at the Pentagram offers us the opportunity to explore some of the high-profile projects to recently appear in our edit...

Federico Babina's architectural flag illustrations deconstruct the notion of borders to imagine an alternative world

2024-06-14T13:27:00-04:00

Today is Flag Day in the United States and in celebration of the country’s first adoption of the national flag as a symbol of unity in 1777, we’ve decided to present some of the select architecturally inspired works of the Italian-born graphic designer Federico Babina.

Babina describes his approach: “I like trying to explain the world I see through different techniques of expression.” Indeed, as Jasper Johns' own six-decade experimentations in vexillography showed us, flags are as much cultural symbols as they are communication devices to be manipulated by various (and sometimes opposing) parties in order to accomplish different political and social aims.

Federico Babina's architectural flag artwork

Babina crafts his own versions of national standards using elevations, section drawings, plans, and silhouettes that are sometimes representative of each country's endemic architecture to give forms which, in turn, fit into the visual field to create imaginative counternar...

The most popular Spring '24 architecture school lecture posters are...

2024-06-05T15:45:00-04:00

The wait is over, and the votes are in! Archinect's online popularity poll of the Spring '24 architecture school lecture posters we featured in our Get Lectured series just wrapped up, and these winning contenders have emerged:

The top prize, with 24.9% of all votes, went to the poster design by Tashfiah Ahmed for East Los Angeles College's Architecture Department, followed by the Pratt School of Architecture poster in second place with 21%, and Texas Tech's Huckabee College of Architecture design coming in third with 20.6% of votes.

Joining the winners were top-ten poster designs from UT Austin, Michigan, Hong Kong, UNC Charlotte, Yale, Florida Atlantic, Woodbury, Tulane, and Syracuse.

Thanks to our readers for participating, and congratulations to all the winning designs and their creators.

First Place: East Los Angeles College

Lecture poster design by Tashfiah Ahmed. Courtesy of East Los Angeles College Architecture Department

Second Place: Pratt Institute

Lecture poster courte...

Vote now for your favorite Spring '24 architecture school lecture poster

2024-05-28T19:46:00-04:00

As the Spring 2024 academic term has wrapped up, let's take another look at the best architecture school lecture poster designs we have presented in our popular Get Lectured series. And as always, we'll let the Archinect audience pick their favorite graphic creations.

In our last reader poll for the Fall 2023 term, the David R. Ravin School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte poster won the top prize, followed by the Pratt Institute School of Architecture poster in second place and UCLA's School of Architecture and Urban Design design coming in third.

Check out the 29 posters we've featured throughout the Spring '24 term.

Voting closes on Tuesday, June 4, at noon Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on Wednesday, June 5. Have fun!

Want to share your school's latest lecture series and be included in the next Fall 2024 series? Send us your poster design and event details.

Supergraphics pioneer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon dies at 95

2024-05-13T19:06:00-04:00

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, the influential California-based graphic designer and landscape architect, passed away on May 7th in San Francisco at the age of 95.

Stauffacher Solomon died a prominent member of the design community whose career advanced aside an unusual synthesis of modern art, design, and architecture with many noted collaborators in all three channels and will be particularly remembered for the Supergraphics paintings she made in the late 1960s while in residence at the Sea Ranch utopian community.

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon's Land(e)scape, 2018. Image courtesy Rob Corder/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed)

“It took a lot of verve for Bobbie to survive in a hostile environment, let alone blaze a trail,” biographer Joseph Becker recalled to the New York Times’ obituary section. “But she had the ability to create these amazing works that reflect her attitude that there should be something fun about the spaces we inhabit. In graphic design, landscape architecture, and her boo...

The most popular Fall '23 architecture school lecture poster is...

2024-02-23T16:08:00-05:00

The votes are in for Archinect's popularity contest of the 32 architecture school lecture posters we featured during the Fall '23 academic term in our Get Lectured series.

Out of 641 responses in our online reader poll, the David R. Ravin School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte poster design raked in 18.3% of votes and took the top prize, followed by the Pratt Institute School of Architecture poster in second place with 15.4%, and UCLA's School of Architecture and Urban Design design coming in third with 14% of votes.

Joining the winners were top-ten poster designs from Woodbury, Florida Atlantic, U of T, Columbia, UT Austin, UIUC, Waterloo, and CU Denver.

Thanks to our readers for participating, and congratulations to all the winning designs and their creators.

First Place: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Lecture poster design by Point of Reference Studio, Madrid, founded by UNC Charlotte School of Architecture alumnus Jeffrey Ludlow. Courtesy of UNC Charlotte School of ...

And the current frontrunners for our Fall '23 architecture school lecture poster vote are...

2024-02-16T19:42:00-05:00

It's not too late yet to cast a vote for your favorite Fall '23 architecture school lecture poster!

The reader poll to select the most popular design of the 32 posters we presented for that academic term in our ongoing Get Lectured series opened earlier this month and still runs until Tuesday, February 20, 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

Currently, the school whose lecture poster received the most votes is The David R. Ravin School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte with 19.8%, ahead of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and UCLA's School of Architecture and Urban Design, which are both tied in second place with 12.4% of votes each. In third place at the moment is Florida Atlantic University School of Architecture at 7.7% of votes with a (literal) stand-out poster design of three-dimensional folded paper.

Check out the posters we've presented throughout the Fall '23 term.

The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on Friday, February 23. Have fun!

Want to share your sc...

Vote now for your favorite Fall '23 architecture school lecture poster

2024-02-06T08:00:00-05:00

With our Get Lectured series, showcasing upcoming public lectures at architecture schools, well into the current Spring academic term, it's a great opportunity to take a look back and let the Archinect audience be the judge of the graphic prowess the 32 poster designs we presented during the Fall 2023 term had to offer.

In our most recent poll last September, the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture took the top prizes for their Fall '22 and Spring '23 lecture poster designs, while the third place went to the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture's Spring '23 poster, followed by a fourth-place tie from the University of Milwaukee School of Architecture & Urban Planning and their Fall '22 and Spring '23 lecture posters.

Check out the posters we've presented throughout the Fall '23 term.

Voting closes on Tuesday, February 20, at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on Friday, February 23. Have fun!

Want to ...

Herman Miller debuts new modernist rebrand for 2024

2024-01-04T17:10:00-05:00

Herman Miller is heading into the new year with a changed branding identity inspired by its namesake founder’s 1960s-era experimentations with the Helvetica typeface, delivered by the Brooklyn-based design agency Order.

The move comes a year after Herman Miller’s 100th anniversary was celebrated with special exhibitions, a retrospective publication, and other programming. The prolific furniture maker’s signature ‘M’ logographic design from Irving Harper was preserved in the rebrand. The company says it is hopeful the refresh will help guide its next century of creative excellence.

“The last brand identity served Herman Miller well for 25 years, but that system predated many of the touchpoints we now have with the Herman Miller customer,” Herman Miller Creative Director Kelsey Keith recently detailed in It’s Nice That. “What we needed was an evolution of the brand, and a complete design system, one that could flex from a mobile phone screen to a physical space and everywhere in betwe...

Pentagram utilizes architectural forms to create a new visual identity for the Memphis Art Museum

2023-11-02T20:04:00-04:00

Pentagram has released materials showcasing their new visual identity project undertaken for their clients at the Memphis Art Museum (formerly the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art) ahead of the completion of its Herzog & de Meuron-led expansion in 2025.

The lettering and logo included in the kit derive from cross-section drawings of the new 122,000-square-foot building, which will grace the center of downtown at Overton Park. The expanded museum also forms the anchor of a wider riverfront development master plan that will reorient the commercial/cultural district. Costs for the expansion have been reported around $180 million.

“We have worked with the greater Memphis community for years on our vision for a new museum, and as it begins to take shape, we are proud to see that it will be a place for community and connectivity unlike anything in our city’s history,” the museum's board president, Carl Person, told the Memphis Flyer newspaper recently about the institutional pivot. “It is tru...

Switzerland releases postal stamp honoring concrete architecture

2023-09-01T11:13:00-04:00

Switzerland's postal service Swiss Post has released a new concrete-inspired stamp. The ‘Art in Architecture’ stamp is the third edition of a series launched by the postal service in 2020, which seeks to “reflect Swiss Post’s commitment to art.”

The stamp follows the previous two editions in incorporating their subject’s material in the stamp itself. Made using cement pigments, the latest stamp holds an ultra-matte finish to give the depicted concrete wall a “tactile dimension.”

Image credit: Swiss Post

“This is a material that plays an important role in the history of architecture,” Swiss Post explains. “Concrete helped art, previously seen by most people as decorative, to attain its independence as an art form. As a stamp design, the symbolic concrete wall represents an artistic pillar that characterizes Swiss Post buildings throughout Switzerland.”

The wider project derives from an initiative that began in Switzerland after the Second World War which said that one percent of publi...

The most popular '22/23 architecture lecture poster vote goes to...

2023-09-01T08:00:00-04:00

The votes are in for your favorite Fall '22 and Spring '23 architecture school lecture posters featured in Archinect's Get Lectured series. Which five posters racked up the top votes?

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture took the top prizes for their Fall '22 and Spring '23 lecture poster designs. The team behind their Fall poster shared that they utilized Midjourney to help create the visual theme, which can be seen in both posters. Third place went to the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture's Spring '23 poster, followed by a fourth-place tie from the University of Milwaukee School of Architecture & Urban Planning and their Fall '22 and Spring '23 lecture posters.

Also among the top ten poster designs in the online popularity contest were Thomas Jefferson University, UCLA, University of Colorado at Denver, Washington University in St. Louis, East Los Angeles College, and Syracuse University.

First Place: University of Texas at Austin, Fall 20...

Harvard GSD details its new visual identity

2023-08-25T13:01:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) this week announced a new visual identity created in order to help galvanize its institutional and pedagogical aims, claiming it needed an "updated language of forms to communicate the school’s mission and values."

The rebranding effort comes in response to Dean Sarah M. Whiting’s previous call for the GSD community to establish a dialogue with the general public in a way that can embody the "critical design thinking" at the core of its educational program.

The new logo offers a further demarcation from the standard university crest-based designs used by Harvard’s other schools and undergraduate residential houses, embracing the 'Flying H' design invented by alum Nigel Smith into the GSD's graphics system to mark the turn of the 21st century.

Image courtesy Harvard GSD

The expressionistic form of John Andrews’ distinct Gund Hall building is a further source of inspiration for the new GSD Gothic typeface, which was the brainchild of the sc...

Vote now for your favorite Fall & Spring '22/23 architecture school lecture poster

2023-08-17T17:25:00-04:00

It's time to let Archinect readers judge the graphic prowess of architecture schools again as they have showcased their lecture and public events programming in our ongoing Get Lectured series.

As we prepare for the upcoming Fall term, which Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 lecture poster will win the top spot for our latest popularity vote?

In our last poll, Boston Architectural College's Spring 2021 poster took home the first prize, followed by the University of Toronto's Winter/Spring poster winning second place, and Woodbury University taking the third and fourth spots for their Spring and Fall poster submissions.

Check out the posters we've presented throughout the Fall '22 and Spring '23 terms, and vote for your favorites here.

Voting closes on Monday, August 28, at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on Friday, September 1. Have fun!

Want to share your school's latest lecture series and be included in the Fall 2023 series? Send us your ...

CannonDesign is pitching in to help acclimate migrants to NYC

2023-05-15T14:52:00-04:00

A new project from CannonDesign aimed at helping migrants who were relocated to Brooklyn’s Red Hook Cruise Terminal in the past year is providing hope to advocates for inclusive design as the city grapples with a vexing crisis that’s only expected to grow with the end of Title 42.

The project was initiated by Blue Cottage of CannonDesign team member Kimberly Silver, a resident of Red Hook, who, in reaction to Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s charge to do more, worked with fellow CannonDesign staffers Steffany Brady, Dylan Coonrad, and Abbey Furlow to strategize a set of wayfinding design solutions that can help better orient them to the neighborhood and city. Together, they say three core “functions” can be achieved as a result of the project.

Using Silver’s observations of the area, TRANSIT activates street surfaces and other barriers surrounding the terminal with clear trail marker-like visual wayfinding directions to the subway and nearby bus stations.

Image courtesy CannonDesign

NEIGH...

Wayfinding as a career in improving accessibility in architecture

2022-10-12T11:59:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Structural Steel Specialist at the AISC, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore a role for a Wayfinding Designer at Mijksenaar USA.

The successful candidate will join the firm’s New York City office, working on “complex wayfinding systems around the world” with a particular focus on transportation facilities, cities, museums, and hospitals. The role, which requires a minimum three years’ experience in wayfinding, architecture, or information design, calls for someone with strong skills in graphic design, 3D design, technical design, and creative thinking.

Why the role interests us

The themes of graphic design and wayfinding are already familiar to our Job Highlights series. Back in March, we used a signage and wayfinding position at Pentagram to investigate the connection between environmental graphic design a...

What does a career as a graphic designer look like within the architecture realm?

2022-07-13T10:03:00-04:00

While architects and graphic designers hold separate titles and specialties within the design team, the two disciplines share many common interests. Both approach their roles with a flair for creativity and design. Both occupy themselves with the human experience, and how people interact with and navigate through space, be it 2D or 3D, physical or digital. Communication is also key to both roles, including communicating ideas to a client, or communication as a function of the end-product.

This overlap between architecture and graphic design plays out across all areas of Archinect’s platform. Over on our Discussion Forum, a thread on the correlation between the disciplines has accumulated over 30 comments from our community. Meanwhile, from our academic sphere, 2021 saw our team hold a contest to find the best poster for architecture school events as part of our Get Lectured series.

Our core editorial pl...

Pentagram co-founder Colin Forbes has died aged 94

2022-05-31T20:02:00-04:00

The graphic design industry has lost an icon as multiple outlets are reporting the death of Pentagram co-founder Colin Forbes last week at his home in Westfield, North Carolina.

Forbes was seen as a monumental figure who pioneered various typographical concepts and was pivotal in the migration of design consultancies towards things like brand identities at a time when graphic design was beginning to present itself as an asset in a world awash in corporate advertising.

In an obituary published Thursday by The New York Times, Forbes was recalled as a “Designer’s designer” whose personal designs for brands like the Pirelli tire company, Nissan, and Jack Daniels went hand-in-hand with his role as the “principal architect” of a “partnership structure that balanced independence and collaboration” to make Pentagram into a global mainstay.

Forbes was born...

Environmental graphic design and its history with architecture highlights the value of cross-disciplinary expertise

2022-03-16T10:05:00-04:00

Architecture as a practice lends itself to fruitful collaborations with adjacent disciplines such as graphic design. When married in a project, the results often exude an exciting blend of color, style, scale, and unique aesthetics. There are plenty of examples to reference from if we look back at architecture's history with graphic design and its sub-disciplines like wayfinding, signage design, and environmental graphic design.

Take the iconic works of graphic designer Deborah Sussman and her collaborations with many architects like Frank Gehry or Barabara Stauffer Solomon and her work at Sea Ranch in the 1960s. While these are merely two of my favorite examples of the relationship between architecture and graphic design, we can see this marriage of disciplines used by architecture firms around the globe. So why discuss such a topic that has become commonplace within design industries?

Design consultancies like Pentagram and other independently run design practices like Isometric S...

Pentagram designs new visual identity for Tulane School of Architecture

2022-02-24T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Tulane School of Architecture

Creating a strong and impactful visual identity for brands and companies is essential. This follows suit for institutions and academic departments. Tulane School of Architecture recently announced its partnership with renowned design firm Pentagram and unveiled its reimagined visual identity. Together, Tulane and Pentagram created a "new suite of branded materials and an entirely redesigned website."

According to Tulane, the school is entering a "new era of educating future professionals in the built environment on the importance of navigating humans' relationship with water and supporting local communities in a wide range of design challenges." With this in mind, the visual rebranding also aimed to cultivate discourse in how the school addresses "pressing environmental, social, and economic challenges."

Video courtesy of Tulane University School of Architecture.

The Pentagram design team brought an impressive level of e...

The winners of the 2021 lecture poster popularity contest are...

2022-02-18T09:00:00-05:00

The votes are in for Archinect's latest contest of architecture school event posters featured in our ongoing Get Lectured series throughout the 2021 Spring and Fall terms.

The Boston community came out in full force to vote for their local team, the Boston Architectural College, taking first place in the people's choice popular vote. Following, with second place, is the Winter/Spring poster from the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Woodbury School of Architecture managed to claim third and fourth places with a creative offering of slick, animated poster banners.

Joining the winners were top ten poster designs from Harvard, Tulane, Carnegie Mellon (the 2020 poster contest winner), UT Austin, USC, Columbia, and Cal Poly Pomona.

Some of us here at Archinect want to share our own personal favorites.
Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see those, too...

First Place: Boston Architectural College's Spring '21 Poster

Second Plac...

Vote now for your favorite architecture school lecture poster of 2021

2022-02-02T18:34:00-05:00

With the old year wrapped up, it's time to select the best architecture school lecture poster of 2021!

Archinect's ongoing Get Lectured series featured 28 poster designs last year from the Spring and Fall terms at leading architecture schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Which entry will win the top spot this time? The winning posters of the 2020 poll were designs from Carnegie Mellon University, Thomas Jefferson University, and Woodbury University.

Check out the posters we presented throughout the 2021 school year, and vote for your favorites here.

Voting closes on Monday, February 14 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on February 15. Have fun!

Philadelphia's planned SEPTA wayfinding redesign is gaining traction online

2021-09-18T09:00:00-04:00

So far, Philly’s proposed wayfinding makeover has won praise from transit advocates around the country. The proposal draws from international best practices for transit navigability, and reflects similar changes in Seattle and San Francisco as big cities grapple with how to lure riders back to mass transportation.

Philadelphia's transit system is the country’s seventh-largest and is often the subject of criticism over its wayfinding and disorienting layout. The $40 million redesign is going to be rolled out gradually and will be fully unveiled sometime in 2022.

A planned four-mile addition to the King of Prussia rail line is also coming thanks to unused federal COVID funding. SEPTA says the extension is one of five projects that will boost economic recovery in the area by 50%.

Bloomberg CityLab has more on the initial reception here.

Autodesk's new look has the architecture and design community talking

2021-09-12T09:00:00-04:00

A strong visual identity is essential to propelling a company's product, service, and overall brand. However, when it comes to logo designs in architecture, for example, the design's overall look on top of its size, type, and color choice can spark polarizing responses from the community. While not everyone is a trained graphic designer whose expertise and critical analysis of a logo goes beyond the general public, everyone has an opinion on whether a logo satisfies their perspective of the company or goes against what "they" envision.

A while back Archinect conducted a special feature reflecting and reviewing new logos from 10 of the most followed firm profiles on Archinect. During this review, the Archinect team collaborated with Armin Vit, co-founder of the graphic design firm UnderConstruction. Vit, a seasoned graphic designer, and writer lent his knowledge and provided expert analysis on logos from firms like OMA, Snøhetta, BIG, Gensler, and Zaha Hadid Architects, to name a fe...

Looking for a new job in architectural visualization or graphic design? Here are 10 employers currently hiring.

2021-09-10T11:55:00-04:00

With the field of architecture comprising an ever-growing spectrum of disciplines, qualifications, and job titles, the opportunity to work at some of the most exciting firms with a non-architectural background has never been better.

From the huge list of career opportunities on Archinect Jobs, we have picked a small selection of current openings for graphic designers, 3D artists, branding specialists, data visualizers, motion graphics artists, digital fabricators, and more.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

LUXIGON_LA seeks a $enior 3d Artist - Photoshop Ma$ter (remote position)
"Looking for a 3d guru (3ds max/ C4d) + Photoshop master for a per project, freelance position that could turn into a full time position... if you are into that type of thing."...

OMA adds a bit of firm history into its design for the new Amex Centurion card

2021-08-13T17:05:00-04:00

A tiny new addition to Rem Koolhaas and OMA’s famed catalog will be launching in the USA in September after a successful European launch earlier this year.

The new Centurion Card design is a collaboration between the Dutch studio and American Express aimed at updating the bulletproof old metallic versions of the card that have been on the market since 2005.

The Boompjes project, Stefano de Martino at OMA

The card’s design is based on the original plan for Boompjes, the never-realized Rotterdam redevelopment project that Koolhaas counts as the first major commission in his home country. Amex came across the Boompjes designs (which feature prominently in several different museum collections including the MOMA) after approaching OMA with the project in 2019. The design was originally centered around the Roman theme that has been synonymous with the company since its inception in America in the late 1950s.

The design is taken from a 1982 silkscreen triptych rendering designed by Koolha...

Into the abyss: An artist has created a deeper shade of black in an ongoing quest for design purity

2021-08-11T13:34:00-04:00

A design world arms race to make the blackest black has intensified this week after an artist revealed his latest creation called Blink.

Stuart Semple created the ink over a period of two years after launching a precursor called Black 3.0 in 2019. The artist had been reacting to the controversy surrounding Anish Kapoor’s being given exclusive rights to Vantablack, the pigment that was initially developed for use on satellites owing to its high absorption rate.

Semple began experimenting with black after a farcical attempt to engineer a purer pink in parody of Kapoor. A more serious effort took shape after the 2019 release and following a beta testing period in which he assembled a team of other artists and designers to provide feedback for the darker and more opaque shade.

“Chemically there are similarities, but the acrylic resin in Black 3.0 is fundamentally different in Blink because we nee...

2020's most popular architecture school lecture poster on Archinect is...

2021-02-04T13:52:00-05:00

The wait is over, and the votes are in! 2020 was a strange year but it encouraged many schools to get creative and explore graphic design possibilities for their virtual lecture series.

Our 2020 Get Lectured poster competition generated a total of 693 votes from the Archinect community and voted Carnegie Mellon's Fall poster as the top lecture poster. In second place was Thomas Jefferson University's Fall poster and Woodbury University's Fall poster took third.

First Place - Carnegie Mellon University

Image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture

Second Place - Thomas Jefferson University

Image courtesy of Thomas Jefferson University College of Architecture and the Built Environment.

Third Place - Woodbury University

Image courtesy of Woodbury School of Architecture

*Notable Mention: 4th Place - Tulane University

Image courtesy of Tulane University School of Architecture

Thank you to everyone who participated and voted! Revisit all previous Get Lectured posters and stay u...

Vote for your favorite architecture school lecture poster from 2020

2021-01-19T09:00:00-05:00

2020 was an unforgettable year. While schools adjusted to hosting online events and lectures, people worldwide could tune in and listen to thought-provoking discussions and presentations from leaders in architecture, design, and other complementary disciplines.

As we look back at last year's virtual lecture series, it's time to vote for your favorite architecture school lecture poster!

Archinect's ongoing Get Lectured series features each school's lectured series and their graphic design prowess with eye-catching lecture posters. Which lecture poster will win the top spot? In our last poll for 2019, the University of Toronto's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design won first place.

Check out the posters we presented throughout the 2020 school year, and vote for your favorites here.

Voting closes on Monday, February 1 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on February 4. Have fun!

Influential New York City subway map designer Michael Hertz has died

2020-02-26T14:42:00-05:00

Michael Hertz, whose design firm produced one of the most consulted maps in human history, the curvy-lined chart that New York City subway riders peer at over one another’s shoulders to figure out which stop they want, died on Feb. 18 in East Meadow, N.Y. He was 87.

In an effort to boost ridership, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North America's largest public transportation network, formed a committee under the leadership of John Tauranac in the mid-1970s to create a new, more appealing map for the New York City subway system and replace the iconic, Massimo Vignelli-designed — yet impractical and not universally loved — map in service at the time.

Michael Hertz Associates provided a new design, featuring more geographically correct lines, which was ultimately published in June 1979 in time for the subway's 75-year anniversary. It has remained the basis for all subsequent maps issued until today.

New York City Subway Map from July 2019. Courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York.

"The map that Mr. Hertz’s firm came up with included streets, neighborhoods and other surface reference points," writes Neil Genzlinger for the NYT. "And it depicted the city and its signature elements like Central Park and th...