LONDON.- What does Tracey Emin have to do with the Tube? London Transport Museum celebrates the art of transport design with its new permanent exhibition, London by Design.

The gallery showcases never before seen items linked to London’s world-famous transport network and its iconic design heritage, from the ‘Golden Era’ (1900s-1940s) right through to the present day and beyond.

From the establishment of the iconic red, blue and white ‘bullseye’ roundel signage, to the instantly recognisable Underground map and the emergence of Tube stations as we know them today, London by Design features seven sections, each chronicling different elements of our iconic transport network’s design.

London by Design celebrates key moments and important milestones in London’s transport design heritage and shows how British art and design have become deeply and inextricably bound with London’s transport network as well as other major transport projects and how this might continue in the future.

Early Era – London Transport’s General Manager Albert Stanley (later Lord Ashfield) has been largely left out of the historical picture. Until now.

The dominating force behind London transport for almost 40 years, Stanley was recruited by a near bankrupt Underground Group (UERL) and quickly built up the company through mergers and takeover deals.

But the American enabled his second in command, Frank Pick – traditionally the more famous of the pair – to commission many of the transport design icons we know today.

Famous Pick commissions include the Johnston typeface, which is still used in an adapted form throughout London’s transport network today. Often referred to as ‘London’s Handwriting’, the typeface was developed nearly 100 years ago by Edward Johnston – now known as the father of modern calligraphy.

Pick also developed London Transport’s earliest signage - the world-famous red, blue and white ‘bullseye’ – now called the roundel, and integral to Transport for London’s status as one of the world’s most recognisable brands.

This section showcases how hard it was to navigate the Underground before Pick’s famous signage was introduced, including a shot of a chaotic looking Tufnell Park Tube station – where getting off at the right stop was clearly somewhat pot luck for passengers.

An original watercolour signed by the architect Leslie Green is also on display, depicting the first plans for the red tiled stations we still see throughout London today.

A Formidable Pair – The dynamic relationship between Lord Ashfield and his second in command, Frank Pick, set into motion the designs still seen by the hundreds of thousands of people using London’s transport network every day.

This section takes a closer look at Pick’s approach to marrying design with a functional transport service, presenting scrap books and notes from his travels.

Maps – An extensive collection of original maps and designs on display for the first time highlights the evolution of London’s bus and Tube map’s and the world-famous diagrammatic design by Harry Beck, which is still in use today and has influenced transport networks across the globe.

From the first ever free pocket map given out in 1908 in anticipation of extra passengers for the Franco-British exhibition and London Olympics, to the sepia effect the Second World War restrictions had on the London Underground map’s historically colourful nature.

The section also contains examples of how Harry Beck’s iconic 1930s design has been altered over the years, including a map from 2009, where the Thames was removed from the map for the first time in 80 years – not a popular decision, the river was ‘reinstated’ just three months later following public outcry.

Vehicles and Moquette Fabric – Vehicles and interior design are not two words that one would consider synonymous, but this vibrant area of the gallery busts this myth, examining London’s unusual moquette fabric seat designs for its buses and trains from their beginnings right through to the present day.

Using fabric swatches, original designs and historic photography, the display conveys how our world-famous moquette covered seating is remarkable – especially by comparison with their plastic counterparts used on transport networks in other cities.

Designed Environments – Since the early 1900s, every detail of the transport systems and the journeys Londoners make have been considered, planned and developed by architects, industrial and graphic designers and engineers.

The objects and images displayed in this phase of the exhibition tell the hidden story of how design has made living and working in London easier.

The section includes an exploration of the work of architect, Charles Holden, who pioneered ‘total design’ in stations, even overseeing the placement of the bins.

Poster Art– From the first graphic poster commission in 1908, the Underground Group, and later London Transport, developed a reputation for producing outstanding poster designs.

Frank Pick recognised the potential of this powerful medium to sell services, influence behaviours and change the way passengers felt about their transport system.

This area of the gallery shows a carefully curated selection of original poster designs and artworks by world-famous artists such as Kauffer – strongly influenced by art deco and futurism, Unger – who produced more than 50 posters for London Transport in 20 years - and war artist, Sargent-Austen.

The gallery includes never before seen artwork for a poster of British war-time leader, Winston Churchill, by Sargent-Austin, which was commissioned to boost morale and remind people of what the nation was fighting for.

Art For All – Since 1908 London’s transport companies have built a formidable reputation for the quality of their advertising and publicity. No other comparable organisation has made such consistent use of high quality art and graphic design to inform, instruct, persuade and appeal to its customers, with everything from leaflets to posters being given deep consideration.

Proof that art and design is still key to the decision making ethos at TfL today, the organisation has been working with Britain’s most notable and famous artists to design beautiful and striking covers for London’s Underground map since 2004.

This section of the exhibition allows visitors to view – together for the first time - the 22 Tube map covers that have been produced over the last ten years by artists including Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and David Shrigley.

Each of the distinct map designs are also contextualised, being viewed alongside interviews with the artists.

The gallery’s overall design also includes an innovative Audio-Visual display projecting a river of images onto the floor of the exhibition space, leading visitors on a journey to certain areas of the exhibition. At one point, a carpet of moquette-style fabric prints will envelop the room, whilst a trail of maps will lead to the maps section of the gallery.

The new London by Design gallery opened as part of Transport for London and London Transport Museum’s Transported by Design season.