In August of 1972, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) debuted a colorful diagrammatic map of the subway system, now commonly referred to as the Vignelli Map. It incorporated several design ideas into one map including a service diagram drawn with straight lines instead of curved ones, and the absence of any details that did not convey information to customers. The most obvious stylistic change was to remove the majority of New York’s topography, making most of its boundaries defined by bodies of water. This map changed the way New Yorkers thought about (and navigated) the subway forever.