Underground Design

Harry Beck's London Tube Map is one of the greatest pieces of graphic design of the 20th century. First created in 1931, it makes travel around the underground railway system so much simpler. Here's a pre-Beck map from 1908:

Of course, many of the lines we now know hadn't been built back then. Here's the first Beck map:

It's interesting to consider what we might have had instead. For example, here's what the map would have looked like if geographically accurate:

And here's a lovely orbital version by Maxwell J Roberts:



 

 

There are some more fascinating (and humorous) variants at Buzzfeed.