Mark Ovenden – författare

Transit Maps of the World is the first, comprehensive collection of every rapid-transit system on earth. Using glorious, colourful graphics, Mark Ovenden traces the history of urban transport systems, including rare and historic maps, diagrams, and photographs. Transit Maps could not be more relevant to our modern existence. It uncovers the way many of us are able live and work day to day. It is an inspiring compendium for graphic designers and transport enthusiasts alike.

A celebratory look back at one hundred years of passenger flight, featuring full-colour reproductions of route maps and posters from the world's most iconic airlinesFrom the first faltering flights over plains, water, and mountains to the vast networks of today, air travel has transformed the world and how people see it. Maps played their part in showing what was possible and who was offering new opportunities. As tiny operations with barely serviceable airplanes pushed out farther and farther, growing and merging to form massive global empires, so the scope of their maps became bigger and bolder, until the entire world was shrunk down to a single sheet of paper. Designs featured sumptuous Art Deco style, intricate artistry, bold modernism, 60s psychedelia, clever photography, and even underground map-style diagrams.For the first time, Mark Ovenden and Maxwell Roberts chart the development of the airline map, and in doing so tell the story of a century of cartography, civil aviation, graphic design and marketing. Airline Maps is a visual feast that reminds the reader that mapping the journey is an essential part of arriving at the destination.

Featuring hundreds of bold, brightly coloured map images from the British Library and private collections, this book traces the evolution of schematic railway mapping from the 1820s, before Britain’s huge train network was even built, through to the modern era’s digital mapping. The volume features the work of celebrated designers and artists including Harry Beck, Margaret Calvert, Gerry Barney, George Dow, Reginald Montague Lander and Bernard Slatter, and reproduces beautiful graphics and cartography originally published by Bartholomews, Bradshaws and Stanfords on both national and regional scales. Brimming with fascinating, stylish and previously unseen images, Mapping Britain’s Railways shows why designing comprehensible diagrams for complex systems is key to helping passengers find their way and how the most aesthetically pleasing become artworks in their own right.

London Underground By Design is the beautifully illustrated new book from Mark Ovenden, the acclaimed author of Great Railway Maps of the World, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Tube in 2013.Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that has influenced transit systems from New York to Tokyo, Moscow to Paris and beyond. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat, a comprehensive history of one of the world's most celebrated design achievements, and of the visionaries who brought it to life.Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how these came together to shape not just the Underground's identity, but the character of London itself. This is the story of celebrated designers - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the modern Tube's look under the 'design fit for purpose' mantra, to Harry Beck, Tube diagram creator, and from Marion Dorn, one of the twentieth century's leading textile designers, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name, as well as Leslie Green, designer of central London's distinctive ruby-red tiled stations, and the Design Research Unit's head, Misha Black, who in the 1960s rebranded British Railways and created the Victoria line's distinctive style, and Sir Norman Foster, architect of Canary Wharf station.'Fascinating ... authoritative ... bristles with photographs I've never seen before ... the book does ample justice to a network that - overcrowded and overpriced - is a glorious palimpsest of design' Andrew Martin, Observer'I wouldn't ordinarily enthuse about one book at such length, but this is an important work...not because it's an entertaining read (it is), but because it identifies the birth of a brand...and records the birth of a new idea - the transport interchange' Kevin McCloud, Grand Designs Magazine'Mark Ovenden has devotedly documented the designs associated with [the Underground] ... "addictive" for anyone interested in the look of everyday life' Telegraph'This beautifully illustrated history is a worth tribute [to 150 years of design]' Shortlist'A wonderful, handsome book ... it makes me want to nerd out, get a travel card and whiz out to the strange ends of Metroland or the UFO shape of Southgate station' Robert Bownes/Andrew Tuck, Monocle Weekly (Radio programme)Mark Ovenden is a British writer and broadcaster. His previous books are Metro Maps of the World, Paris Metro Style and Great Railway Maps of the World. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and lives in London.

Edward Johnston (1872-1944) and Eric Gill (1882-1940) were originators of two of the world's most enduring typefaces. Johnston still stands as London's primary 'wayfinding' lettering, while Gill Sans is the type of choice within many public and private organisations across the UK today. This book celebrates their significant contribution to Britai