The making of the Sheremetyevo airport maps

Getting to work with the first designer. He develops the concept and assembles a presentation.

Submitting the project to the competition and winning it.

Inviting the second designer to join in. He receives the picture and starts from scratch.

Refreshing the overview map. It will be laid over the map on the website, so has to be flat. We will draw all the isometric prettyisms later, when it’s time to print.

Art director: We need to fill the terminals with color.

Art director: Well, OK.

Laying the overview map aside for now and moving on to the terminals. Studying the existing solutions.

Diving into the wonderful world of totally confusing blueprints.

It doesn’t get any clearer. Drawing level drafts and going out to visit Sheremetyevo.

Walking through every terminal, studying every corner and marking all important objects.

Drawing elevators, stairs and pictograms, trying them on.

Zhgun suggests we put the pictograms on the plane of the map.

Yes, much better this way. Showing to the art director.

Art director: There’s too much of white area here, it steals all the attention. Take the lid off.

Designer: Like this?

Art director: Well, yeah.

Having decided on the principles of displaying rooms and areas we draw the other terminals.

Uploading the pictures to the test server and placing the pictograms. Getting a series of corrections from the client, fixing bugs.

Now we start to work on the print versions. Combining all four terminals in one complex. This map has to show all departure areas and route guides for transfer passengers. In terminal E passenger check-in is on the second floor while the departure gates are on the third. We need to find a way to show it.

Placing the bare minimum of pictograms and captions, typesetting the legend and the information insert.

Art director: Nice.

Preparing maps of other levels for print. The departure area in terminal E moves to a separate page, while terminals D and F are now together. Aligning everything to match the grid of the Sheremetyevo magazine.

Getting back to the overview map and drawing an isometric projection.

The magazine with the new maps is sent to print. Meanwhile the designer, the technologist and the content manager continue to adjust the objects on the website and fine tune the filter system.