In 1933, commuters in London were drowning in information. The city’s underground railway had grown rapidly, and official maps tried to show every tunnel exactly as it existed underground. Lines curved and twisted to match geography. Distances were technically accurate. Streets, rivers and landmarks crowded the page. The result was a mess. Riders squinted, hesitated and missed their stops — not because the system was broken, but because the message was.
Then a draftsman named Harry Beck had an idea. Beck wasn’t a cartographer, rather, he worked in electrical engineering, drawing circuit diagrams for a living. His diagrams weren’t geographically accurate, but they were clear. Components were spaced evenly, lines ran straight and relationships mattered more than scale.
So, Beck decided to redesign the London Underground map the same way. He stripped away surface geography. Stations were evenly spaced whether they were far apart or not. Lines ran only vertically, horizontally or at 45-degree angles. Colors did the heavy lifting. The map no longer showed the city as it was; it showed the system as people needed to understand it!
At first, officials were skeptical. It wasn’t “accurate.” It wasn’t how things really looked. But when the map was released, everything changed. Commuters understood the system instantly and navigation became intuitive. What had once been overwhelming finally made sense.
Beck’s map is still the foundation of the London Tube today. The lesson is simple and timeless: accuracy without clarity confuses and complexity without structure overwhelms. People don’t need more information; they need better understanding.
That’s where Radiant comes in. We help ministries do what Harry Beck did: take what’s complex, crowded and confusing, and turn it into something people can actually navigate. Clear brands, clear messages and clear systems. Because the goal isn’t to show everything you know. It’s to help people know where they’re going.
