The Mexico City subway system is the second largest in the Americas, second only to New York. It serves 4.5 million users per day, with 12 lines serving 95 stations over 141 miles. It is a cultural treasury as well, incorporating art in the form of unique designs, historical and literary murals, as well as musicians playing classical, ranchera, and traditional music in the acoustical tunnels. The Mexican subway system is the great leveler, carrying doctors and lawyers as well as housemaids and store clerks to work each day.
Because it is so vast and complex and serves people who speak indigenous languages, as well as millions of non-Spanish speakers from around the world, planners sought to update the system with a series of pictographs and visual symbols and colors that would depict not only the various stations and exists, but also Mexican culture and history. The project director, Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vásquez, who created the famous Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, chose a young graphic designer by the name of Lance Wyman to do the job.
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