decoRATING with Jason Kontos

As I said yesterday EVERYTHING is an art form--especially those objects you pass by every single day that become so familiar and repetitive that they stop having their own identity and just blend in.

Earlier this month, graphic designer Bob Noorda died at the age of 82. Noorda was the man that created a system so intimately involved in everything that New Yorkers do, it can almost be considered part of the City's identity.

According to his obit in the New York Times, in 1966 his firm Unimark International was commissioned to "modernize and unify" the look of the subway system's signs. He's responsible for the color coding we use today to identify various train lines which snake below the sidewalks 'round the clock.

The article also says the man diligently studied the undergrounds to see where signs should be placed, and that past ones were so shoddy, sometimes they were no more than a piece of paper taped to a wall.

So thank you Mr. Noorda. If it weren't for you we'd be running in circles. As if we don't do enough of that as it is...

~Jason Kontos