Salomon, George

George Salomon (1920–1981) was a German-born graphic designer who created an important evolution of the New York City Subway system map. Born into a Jewish family in Hamburg, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938, settling in the United States. In 1955, inspired by the modernist design of Harry Beck's London Underground map, Salomon submitted a proposal to the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) to overhaul the subway's map and nomenclature. Although his comprehensive renaming system was rejected, his diagrammatic map was adopted, which was the first to use a systematic visual language for the subway. His design, first issued in 1958, departed from geographical accuracy in favor of clarity, using straight lines and limited angles to represent routes. This approach made navigation more intuitive for riders. His work laid the foundation for later designers, including Massimo Vignelli, whose 1972 map further embraced diagrammatic principles. After delivering his map in 1958, Salomon had no further control of it, and disliked the NYCTA's addition of touristic information to his minimalist design, however subsequent editions of the map were recognisably his until the 1967 redesign.