Design
Deciphering Mexico City's Metro Icons
The city’s transit authority wants to help you learn what each of its nearly 200 station identifiers mean.
Each metro station in Mexico City is identified by a single icon. Created in a time when the country’s literacy rate was low and the capital city’s metro system was small, the design concept was intuitive and easy to execute.
Nearly 50 years later, adult literacy rates in Mexico have risen to just under 95 percent while Mexico City’s metro system has grown to 12 lines and 195 stations. Yet the icon system—drawing from current and ancient associations with the built environment—endures.