Lance Wyman

Lance Wyman is an American designer whose work has shaped how millions navigate and experience the modern city. Best known for the identity of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Wyman established a new design language that merged cultural symbolism with modernist clarity — a system of pictograms, typography, and color that became a landmark in communication design and a visual ambassador for Mexico.

Following the success of the Olympics, Wyman designed the Mexico City Metro’s wayfinding system — a graphic code of icons and colors that remains a model for universal design and continues to serve millions daily. His subsequent projects include the Washington Metro, the U.S. Bicentennial identity, the National Zoo, the Minnesota Zoo, and the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. Each project demonstrates his belief that design can bridge culture and utility, creating order and meaning within public space.

Wyman’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Centre Pompidou, and has influenced generations of designers working at the intersection of design, architecture, and anthropology. His books Lance Wyman: The Monograph and Process. A Visual Biography document a lifetime dedicated to systems thinking, legibility, and human connection.

Across more than six decades, Lance Wyman has redefined the scale of graphic design — from page to plaza, from image to infrastructure — showing how thoughtful visual systems can make cities more navigable, inclusive, and alive.