Harry Beck: The Paris Connection
Detail from Harry Beck’s 1951 Paris Metro map design (which was rejected by the city’s transport authorities). Used by kind permission London Transport Museum
The Royal Mail recently commemorated one of the UK’s greatest works of visual information design when Harry Beck’s London Underground diagram was included for the first time on a British postage stamp writes Mark Ovenden. The importance of Beck’s rectilinear, topologic 1933 diagram is widely recognised and praised by graphic designers. Many wonder why Beck never extended his ideas outside London. The answer is, he did – to the nearest major subway network to London: Paris.