TRANS AMS is a public transport re-brand and map with a personality just as whimsical as the city it outlines. Amsterdam has a fantastically established public transportation system which includes but is not limited to subway, tram, bus, ferry, and bicycle. For a city that offers so much, however, it lacks a map that organizes all routes in one place.

 

Trans Ams utilizes a rainbow of bight and hopeful colors reminiscent of the magic of the neighboring tulip fields and flower markets, as well as the whimsy of its architecture. When paired with non-threatening rounded corners, this makes navigation in an unfamiliar city far less scary.

 

Throughout Amsterdam’s visual language, the circle is seen quite a bit. In the wheels of bicycles that line the streets, the shape of cups of coff ee and famous sweet treats. A tulip as viewed from above, it’s windmills, as well as a wing in the ever famous Van Gogh Museum. Even the city itself appears to maintain a somewhat circular shape. Circles also symbolize the universe and all its life cycles. They are representative of the wheel, and allow most all modes of transportation to function. Circles are non-threatening and work to create a friendly environment for users, particularly lost ones.

 

Immanuel Kant’s famous phrase “ding an sich” applies to the circle, as a circle is not a “thing-in-itself,” It is a semantic fabrication. This being said, it only made perfect sense to implement a circular grid system for TRANS AMS. As Alfred Korzybski, the father of General Semantics, would say, it is “the map, not the territory.”

 

BRANDING / MAP GRID & LAYOUT / ILLUSTRATION / PRINT & PRODUCTION