instagram:

Shooting the London Tube with @missunderground

To see more photos of the London Underground, follow Jess on Instagram: @missunderground.

In 2011, Jess Macdonald (@missunderground) snapped her first photo of the London Underground. Quickly, the beloved Tube’s architecture and tunnels became a favorite scene for Jess and her followers on Instagram. “I got more engagement on my Underground pictures so that’s when my feed became solely Underground shots.”

Her iconic photos have drawn a global audience and have also introduced Jess to new friends in London. “I love posting my photos on Instagram, reading and responding to all the comments I get and forming friendships with users from all over the world. I have met some wonderful people, made some best friends and met my boyfriend through the Instagram Community here in London.”

Want to shoot your local subway like @missunderground? Be sure to follow Jess on Instagram @missunderground and try out her tips: “Assess your space. Be sure to work with the lines, the artificial light and play with reflections.”

London Tube

by Ryo Takemasa

transitmaps:

tactful-cactus:

Storylines

London’s iconic tube map is transformed into a pit-stop journey through classic styles of storytelling, with the individual tube lines turned into genres and sub genres of literature. The depths of the Northern Line are made over into the aptly named Horror Line. The Bakerloo Line coursing past Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street becomes, of course, the Crime & Mystery Line. And the pink trajectory of the Hammersmith & City is converted to the Romance Line. Each Storyline features a range of illustrations bringing to life both classics and mavericks from that theme, with a genre-defining work lurking at each journey’s end. Stations falling on intersecting Storylines get a sub-genre cross over. Many many days and weeks were spent researching and crafting this piece.

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of the whole “let’s use a well known transit map and replace the station names with something else” thing, but I’m going to make an exception for this stunning poster by artist Anna Burles. This is beautifully done, and — for once — the interchanges between the genre/route lines have actually been thought about properly.

limitdlimitd:

Today marks 150 years since the first operation of the London Underground, on January 9th 1863.  I love how the Underground has always taken art seriously; the TFL organisation Art on the Underground is in charge of commissioning public art specifically for the system as well as organising display of other work around the network.  The highlight for me came in 2006 with Rut Blees Luxemburg’s Piccadilly’s Peccadilloes project which you should Google immediately.

Above are some of the creative covers which adorn the cover of the official tube map which you pick up from the stations.

Happy 150th, LU!