The inaugural book of Melbourne’s Train System aesthetic history and design.

Get the Met: the evolution of Melbourne’s train system

ISBN: 978-0-6457699-0-6

8 December 2020

After first publishing Infinitism Magazine in 2012, Melbourne based designer and creative, Jourdan Sungkar has published, Get the Met: Melbourne Train System Design, detailing the aesthetics, history and evolution of the Train System in one of the world’s most livable cities. This book is dedicated to the display and appreciation of Melbourne’s iconic train designs over time, including the actual train models, branding, tickets, maps, routes and pamphlets. It also comes with reprinted 1980 train tickets and collectible stickers, taking us back to a nostalgic era.

Trains in Urban Culture
Trains have played a critical role in the landscape of urban culture beyond functionality. A canvas for the graffiti artist, a morning library for daily commuters, and a performing stage for the busker, the role and design of Melbourne trains have evolved over the decades as technology, art and functionality coalesce to connect a bustling 21st century city. Since New York city’s birth of hip hop, to black gospel and soul train, subways and trains have always encapsulated street architecture, urban culture and graphics design. For graffiti writers in particular, trains have a high cultural value since the art’s conception in the 1960s Philadelphia and 1970s New York subways. It is art through motion and logistics conveying sociopolitical or aesthetic messages connecting to the daily masses. This book is the first of its kind to connect such elements that has given Melbourne its unique character on the global stage.

Artist & Project Background
Jourdan spent his teenage years skateboarding. Over a number of years, he practiced his craft at graffiti, both in Australia and internationally, allowing his creative skills and ambition to be tailored in the public space. Skateboarding and graffiti allowed him to appreciate spatial geography and art as a backdrop to his creative and design career. Get the Met was Jourdan Sungkar’s final year project for a Bachelor degree in Advertising and Branding at Swinburne University, 2014. The course requested to make a book about an artist or a designer. Jourdan pushed the boundaries to brainstorm a book about the Melbourne train system - one that resonates with his streets upbringing. Six years later, through painstaking research and design, including unseen photographs and archived records, the book was finally published and is now a collector’s item. Jourdan has published and printed this book independently. Since its conception, it has acclaimed success in the underground scene, selling over 200 copies as even prior to its official publication.

The train related imagery in the book were taken by the following photographers: Weston Langford, Peter Liebeskind, Bill Perussich, Chris McGregor, Rob O’Regan, Chris Gordon, Peter J. Vincent, Andrew Cook, Martin Bennet, Paul McCabe, Marcus Wong and Nathan Fitzhume.

Book Reviews:

“This small book, focused on Melbourne train system design, will appeal not just to railway aficionados but also anyone with an interest in the city’s suburban trains.It is a light read; a primer to the history and development of the system, its rolling stock and its ever-changing branding since the demise of the Victorian Railways in the 1980s. There are descriptions of the trains from the days of the red rattlers to the sleeker modern carriages and a whole section on the variety of ticketing systems tried and failed since end of over a hundred years of those little cardboard rectangles many will recall. The strength of this account is in the illustrations of trains, tickets and promotional matter” - John Schauble, Royal Historical Society Victoria.