This amazing poster featuring all 468 NYC subway signs is blowing up on Kickstarter
A rare poster showing every single one of the MTA's 468 subway signs is available to anyone who pledges to support it on Kickstarter before July 21.
The project is blowing up on Kickstarter. In 36 hours, it's raised $67,281 - more than double its $29,800 goal.
The poster is such a big deal because its creators had to get permission from New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority to recreate all of the signs, which are the MTA's intellectual property.
The poster is the brainchild of Alex Daly and Hamish Smyth. Daly is the "Crowdsourceress," a professional crowdfunder whose company, Vann Alexandra, has a 100% success rate. This is her first time signing on as a creator on a project.
Smyth is her boyfriend, and another old Kickstarter pro. He and fellow designer Jesse Reed got permission to reprint the 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual in September 2014. Daly organized their Kickstarter page for them, and they raised over $800,000 for the massively successful project.
Smyth drew all of the subway signs and arranged them in alphabetical order, then he and Daly hung it in their apartment.
"Everyone who visits our apartment loves the poster and asks where they can get one," Daly and Smyth write. "That's why we have decided to share it exclusively on Kickstarter."
They're using 11 Pantone spot colors for the poster, and it's being printed in Italy. The posters come in two sizes: 24" by 33 1/4" and 28" by 38 1/4".
"During the The Standards Manual campaign our fascination with subway signage only deepened," Daly and Smyth write on their Kickstarter page. "Even though the signs have changed from the original 1970 Unimark designs, they remain close to the original intent of [designers] Bob Noorda and Massimo Vignelli."
The signs' relative lack of change since 1970 "is a testament to the simplicity and elegance of the design," Daly and Smyth write. "This is an iconic design that should be remembered and celebrated, and we think a beautifully printed poster is a great way to get it into many people's hands."
Click here to check out their Kickstarter page.