Lines

I spotted this in a restaurant here in Chicago. Most people might not recognize it. But the million people that ride it each day would.

It’s a drawing of Chicago’s elevated train. Our “L”.

I love that an artist was able to elicit these feelings and pride about Chicago and its train from taking something as complicated looking as its map, and recasting it with just a handful of imperfect lines.

It’s also an interesting reminder to me that I don’t always have to create pixel perfect train maps when creating things. It’s easy to get bogged down in designing something that’s perfectly laid out, and must contain so many bits of information because EVERYTHING I have to get into this project is so damn important. But sometimes the job you’re trying to do doesn’t really warrant the layers of complexity you’ve convinced yourself you needed of the finished product.

Sometimes a handful of lines is just perfect.

The artist who made it is Tim Jarosz. You can follow him on Twitter: here.