This project was a personal exploration for my typography class, born from my passion for transit systems and graphic design. I’ve always been fascinated by how wayfinding systems create a powerful sense of identity for a city, and I wanted to see how a familiar New York City landmark would look through the lens of other iconic networks.
The core idea was to answer the question: “What if the 8 Street-NYU station existed in Tokyo, Hong Kong, or London?” This involved a deep dive into the typographic rules, color palettes, and design philosophies of each city’s transit authority. The final outcome is a series of speculative designs that faithfully adapt the NYU station’s identity into each system. From the precise Gothic fonts of the JR Yamanote Line to the elegant Song typeface of the MTR and the timeless Johnston font of the London Underground, each piece is a careful study in how strict design systems create instantly recognizable and culturally significant identities.