- First sketched in 1931, finalised and published in 1932 when he was 29 years old.
- 2 radical innovations in the design:
- the enlargement of the central area of underground system to show complex connections clearly
- limiting direction of route lines to vertical, horizontal and 45 degree diagonals. At first this idea wasn't received very well and it went down to public opinion as to whether or not it would be used. The public embraced this idea and loved the clarity it created even though it was conventional, therefore this idea was eventually accepted and printed on mass on things such as posters, diaries and reference books. It soon became a familiar image for London commuters.
- Used a six colour system
- 1933 second edition, rings replaced the diamond symbols formally used, and the top of the Bakerloo Line was straightened.
- All work was done by Beck in his spare time
- He received 5 guineas for the first design
- He was very casual about fees
- experimental work and multiple published editions were never charged for
- 1933-1959 (date of last edition with Beck's name on) he worked on the diagrams freelance whilst working for the publicity department of the LPTB
- He dedicated most of his free time on weekends and often would not sleep in order to get projects finished for Mondays
- received many suggestions from people he worked with as well as London commuters
-1937 idea to enlarge symbols for stations which had interchanges which other lines however tis wasn't successful and was dropped.
-1949, introduced the highly successful white line connector for double and triple station symbols. Solved the problem of including extensions to both ends of the central line, introducing clear distinctions separating circle and district lines.
-1959 last design included coordination grid.
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