Seoul’s Delightfully Detailed Station Guides
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Seoul, South Korea for the first time. As an American, it’s hard not to be impressed by their modern, clean and extremely extensive subway and rail system. I found riding the subway to be intuitive, mostly because every detail of the system seems very well thought out and designed.
This is, of course, easy for me to say as a tourist; I had no particular place to be by any certain time; I’m sure those who use the system for everyday commuting will have their complaints.
That said, the design of the stations and the accompanying wayfinding is very well done. One particular aspect about the system that I really enjoyed were these oblique drawings of each station, found on on the waiting platform and near exits.
While the drawing themselves are quite practical — clearly showing exit locations and evacuation routes — they’re also beautiful in their own right.
The drawings manage to squeeze in a great deal of information, from the location of stairs and escalators to the direction each train is traveling, while still being legible.
They also point to the immense size of some of the Seoul subway stations.
The stations can be a maze of stairs, escalators and elevators.
Some involve going up five or six levels from the platform to the street.
I also love how the stations are drawn on a blank white canvas; they’re just floating in space.
That abstraction of space is why these drawings, to me, approach art; they remind me of the work of Iakov Chernikhov.
I couldn’t find the name of the designer of these; if anyone knows, please fill me in!
All images from the official Seoul Metro website.