To go inside the process, Work & Co collaborated with Gary Hustwit -the acclaimed filmmaker and director of design documentaries including Helvetica, Objectified, and Rams- to produce a short documentary titled 'The Map.' The film dives into the 18-month partnership between the MTA and Work & Co, and the challenges and complexity of creating this first-of-its-kind live map. Rather than using paragraphs of copy, service-change information is represented visually to make it simpler for millions of New Yorkers and tourists to navigate the system. Using the MTA’s data, the map dynamically redraws itself to ensure train lines are up to date and move in real-time. It uses the geometric clarity of Massimo Vignelli’s diagram with the geographical and organic curves by Hertz, but powers it with technology to make a map more appropriate for our time. The MTA Live Subway Map is a web-based digital product that evolves the iconic New York City subway maps by Unimark International and Michael Hertz Associates.

This ambitious project marks the network’s first major redesign in four decades.

What resulted 18 months later was the release of the first real-time, live map of the subway system. Three entities - the MTA, the Transit Innovation Partnership, and Work & Co - came together in 2018 with the goal of creating a new digital tool to help riders better plan their journeys.

Nyc mta map