I’ve previously written about UTSAV, an excellent Indian restaurant in Vernon, CT. As one of the first people to visit, I was floored by the gastronomic delights on offer and wasted no time in recommending the food to friends, acquaintances and strangers. But even more impressive than the delectable dishes was the sincere attention paid by the proprietor, Sheen, and the rest of the staff to each diner’s experience.

Now, that team has opened up a new restaurant, IndiGo Bistro, located in the Shop Rite Plaza on Spencer Street in Manchester, CT. The personal touch is there in abundance and the food is spectacular. From the sizzling and tender tandoori chicken that comes with each buffet to the frequent inclusion of complimentary appetizers and desserts, the folks at Indigo Bistro work hard to make each visit as memorable and enjoyable as possible. As far as Indian restaurants in Connecticut go, I doubt you could find anywhere better, and it’s my humble belief that IndiGo is the best restaurant east of the Connecticut River. I’m not alone, either, and the string of rave reviews seems to indicate that it will be a mecca for lovers of good food for years to come.

Address: 232 Spencer Street, Manchester, CT, 06040
Telephone: (860)646-8600
Website: http://www.indigo-bistro.com

While designing the Hartford Metro Map, I guessed it would be popular enough with local folks to merit a run of about 100 prints. I’d seen Kickstarter and was attracted by a few dimensions of its model:

• It removes the risk from the project.
• It handles the credit card transactions.
• It offers tools for organization and promotion.

Any artist/designer can appreciate the uncertainty in releasing a finished work for public approval. There’s always the possibility that no one else will be as excited about it as you are, making for an expensive flop if the printing is done beforehand. Particularly at my current level of skill and notoriety (little & none), this was a concern. Kickstarter alleviated that concern.

Asking for money is also tough. To get around that, Kickstarter’s system again made that a non-issue. From the perspective of the backers, they are also protected in that no money changes hands if the project fails to get funded.

Lastly, online media provide amazingly easy and cost-effective channels to promote projects to large networks. Twitter, Facebook and blogs have enormous reach, and each medium makes it simple for others to share a meme with their own networks. It’s that snowball effect that proved so powerful and essential in the success of the Hartford Metro Map.

In addition to the product being compelling and my great fortune in having several influential & enthusiastic friends, I trace the success of the project back to a few of its specific qualities and decisions made during its creation. First, giving proceeds to charity made backing the project attractive regardless of its deliverables. Second, it was rooted in the vibrant Hartford community so that it appealed to local pride and sense of place. Third, there was a focus on affordability, so that backers could easily justify a small outlay to support the project. And finally, the addition of the American Apparel T spurred a whole round of increased pledges, resulting in the project being funded after just 17 days. People love t-shirts.

In hindsight, I should have had more faith in the project getting funded. Specifically, the time frame for funding should have been much shorter in order to maintain urgency and get the finished product into the hands of backers as soon as possible. For the Hartford Metro Map, I think I good window would have been four weeks. The price points turned out to be pretty good, despite my initial worries that they were too expensive. After an initial wave of support for the map, adding the t-shirt rewards later helped keep up interest in the project and attract new followers. Whether it would have been better to start with several rewards in place, I can’t say, but I think having legitimate news to share was a plus.

Order a copy of the map at Kickstarter

Introduction
The Hartford Metro map elides several of my deepest interests: maps, travel, Hartford, urban planning and graphic design. I still stumble across old notebooks with sketches of imaginary maps, Utopian cities with concentric bands zoned commercial, residential, industrial, recreational, infrastructural, etc. The urban models usually feature perfect circles with wide boulevards radiating from vibrant city centers. Like many of my fancies, these sensibilities are indulgently Parisian; I’ve always been big on symmetry.

Eventually, the realization has come that symmetry is an obvious-but-not-unique mechanism to achieve balance. Interesting graphic design usually employs more complex forms of balance that I’m just starting to recognize and incorporate into my own work. To this end, grids and visual design concepts, like the rule of thirds, have helped immensely.

Imposing balance on something organic and seemingly chaotic is both challenging and fulfilling. Hartford is clearly not a circle. Its roads aren’t perpendicular. Its neighborhoods aren’t neatly bounded. Its river doesn’t run at 45 degree angles. But through a map, those irregularities can ironed out. Particularly in a metro map, the cartographer has license to compress, expand or otherwise warp distance and geography to accommodate the purpose of the finished product: as an aid to quickly and easily navigate the transportation system.

Stations
In the Hartford Metro map, I had the extra benefit of being able to place my own stations, which was the logical starting point. Hours of poring over a gigantic Google Maps screenshot of Greater Hartford helped me decide on most of the station locations. Reading Hartford blogs and discussions with friends gave me other ideas. As the map began to take shape, a few other stops emerged that seemed to make sense.

Hartford not being particularly large, it made sense to extend the network beyond the city limits. This allowed me to include many more stops, making the map fuller and more interesting. It also kept it more plausible than it would have been if I had put stations every hundred yards within the city. There are only a few stops that were somewhat shoehorned in, namely Hockanum, Trout Brook and Westmoor Park.

To me, the biggest existing problem with Hartford’s public transit is the disconnect between the downtown area and the West End. I-84 effectively cleaves the city in half, both a physical barrier and a symbol representing the dominance of the car as the preferred method of transportation here (though Hartford bicycles seem to be on the rise). The twin hubs of State House (downtown) and West End (in the West End) admit the dual “centers” of the city. Still, with only one stop in between, the areas are well-connected by rail.

The inclusion of several schools (M.C.C., Trinity, UHart, UConn-Hfd/SJC) reflects the importance of affordable transport for Ramen-subsisting college students, giving them access to explore and contribute to all areas of the city. The Buckland Hills and UConn Health Center stops were placed to create a link between me and my friends, Dan and Marta, in Farmington and thus obviate the need to get in a car.

Lines
With the most necessary stations selected, connecting them provided the next challenge. Strong north/south and east/west axes were fundamental, providing a functional and aesthetically pleasing backbone to the map. The lines needed to accommodate easy travel within the city and extended service to its suburbs, suggesting a loop in the middle with lines radiating outward.

The orange line, my personal favorite, was tasked with running down Farmington Avenue to link downtown with the West End and West Hartford. Much of the map looks to Harry Beck’s iconic London Underground map for inspiration, and the idea of a downtown loop (Yellow Line) was one product of that. The Red Line was designed to connect the north and south ends of the city, filling a gap left by the downtown loop.

Running NW to SE are the Blue and Brown lines, providing downtown access to those on the fringes of the city. From SW to NE, the Green Line offers a route to the airport, while the Gray Line connects Hartford to both Boston and New Haven, or The Rest of the World.

With only seven lines, colors seemed the most appropriate nomenclature (as opposed to numbers or letters), though I did also number the lines. This was mainly a nod to the Paris Metro, which I studied extensively in Paris Metro Style: In Map and Station Design, and simply because I like the way numbers look in circles.

Graphic Elements
River
Harry Beck famously made a map for the Paris Metro that employed his signature axises and 45 degree angles. He also stylized the Seine. He apparently didn’t appreciate Parisians’ fierce pride in the geography of their city and their river, because they wholeheartedly rejected his map. I hope Hartfordians are less fanatical about how the Connecticut River is represented, because I think the stylized version adds quite a lot to the Hartford Metro map in terms of color, shape and balance.

Logo
My previous experiments in logo design and using negative space haven’t been hugely successful. Naturally, that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm and conviction that an imaginary metro map would certainly be branded with the system logo. Such details are the difference between raw and polished. Aesthetically, I love the simplicity of some of the old Parisian logos (sensing a theme here?) with a slab serif “M” in a circle. However, I wanted my logo to be original, and incorporate an “H” to reinforce the “Hartford-ness” of this particular metro system. With the H&M combo, it didn’t take long to see that there was an opportunity to put some arrows in the negative space.

By itself, I actually prefer the version with just the vertical arrows to the one where the diamond is completed. In the interest of legibility, though, it made sense to go with the latter.

System Fares and Hours of Operation
It was important that the Metro be cheap in order to cement its place as the preferred method of intracity transit. It was equally important that it be a flat-fee system, which makes journey planning easier and prevents coin-related entropy. Paying $2 to get to Boston or BDL would’ve been a bit outrageous, and thus was born the State Departure Surcharge. Calling it a “surcharge” instead of a tax satisfied me more than it should have done. To me, that sort of spin-doctoring gives the map a bit more humanity.

My initial idea was to generate complete timetables for every stop on every line. That would’ve taken far too long and wouldn’t have fit on the map anyhow. As it was, the Hours of Operation had to be set in very small type.

Map Design Rules I Obeyed
- Use a consistent typeface. I chose Gotham Condensed: clean, legible, narrow, civic.
- Type shouldn’t be kerned or sized inconsistently in order to fit text into the map.
- Station names should be close enough to clearly indicate which station it is referring to.
- Station names shouldn’t crash over lines.
- Station names should be on the same side of line when possible.
- Lines should run horizontal, vertical and at no more than one other angle (45 degrees looks cleanest).

Map Design Rules I Disobeyed
- Lines shouldn’t change direction under stations.
- Lines shouldn’t change direction unless necessary.

Conclusion
While I think the finished product looks good, it was the experience in overcoming design challenges and the sheer enjoyment of working on the map made this project so rewarding. You can get a 27″ x 16.5″ print and support ConnectiKids by pledging $25 on Kickstarter.

I just completed an imaginary Hartford Metro map and am currently exploring printing options. At this point, it looks like a run of about 100 prints, 27″ x 16.5″ on heavy paper with a matte finish.

The price point hasn’t yet been set, but all proceeds will go to ConnectiKids, a Hartford-based “independent, non-profit youth development agency whose mission is to connect kids in Hartford to their potential by providing year-round enrichment opportunities linked directly to school curricula, taking a holistic approach to youth development, and exposing kids to role models who inspire positive choices and big dreams.”

In the coming days, I’ll be preparing a process post, where I detail the evolution of the project including station selection, line layout and timetable development while discussing the various design choices made along the way.

UPDATE: You can order your copy here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/886104268/hartford-metro-map

Last week, I volunteered as part of the Homeless Vulnerability Index (PDF), a method of determining which Hartford-area homeless were at the greatest risk. Based on the information gathered, those with the greatest need would be helped first. The project involved searching for the homeless in the early morning hours over two days, and visiting homeless shelters in the city in order to administer a survey. I was part of the latter effort at a shelter called Immaculate Conception, temporary home to about 80 men.

My first reaction was astonishment at the friendless and high spirits of the men I interviewed. While I expected them be guarded and reticent, they were remarkably candid in speaking about their history on the streets, where they typically slept, their medical conditions and how they made money. Since five of us had to survey all of the men over just three hours, I was disappointed that I didn’t have time to ask follow-up questions outside the scope of the study. I wanted to understand more about how they became homeless, what they did during the day and what was most difficult about their situations.

Ultimately, it was a touching and deeply fulfilling experience, particularly the results. An organization called Journey Home is now focusing on the 40 most vulnerable individuals of those surveyed, with the remaining 115 classified as “vulnerable” next in line for help finding housing. I’m already looking to volunteer again doing something similar, hopefully with the same group of men.