maps

I teach at a design college. Last month a senior was mapping abandoned properties in Minneapolis using Google Fusion software; her purpose was to elicit some storytelling from urban residents. A couple dozen property markers popped up in her map of North Minneapolis neighborhoods; surprised by a noticeable linear pattern, she inquired of...[read more]

While passing through Depressa, Italy in August, I began some earnest thinking on the impact of a name on a place. In Depressa’s case, based on a passing roadside view, things ironically seemed happy enough. My fiancee and brother tolerated my five minute absence from the car to obtain photographs. “You can’t make places like this up,”...[read more]

Map making is not just about creating visual representations of physical spaces, but can also be about documenting impressions and emotions. Paula Scher, a partner at Pentagram and one of the most influential graphic designers of her generation, has a new book, MAPS, that conveys the rich, complex feelings she has for the...[read more]

Twitter data is becoming a new rawmaterial for representing cities. Visualisations are being produced frequently. The latest addition comes from Trendsmap the online platform visualising emerging Twitter trends. The guys have produced visualisations for a number of cities from around the world plotting locations of georeferenced tweets....[read more]

New York City's newest pedestrian-friendly maps will help encourage visitors and locals to choose walking as a better transit option. Photo by the NYC Department of Transportation. Hansel and Gretel may have had bread crumbs to lead their way, but New York City’s pedestrians will have something less edible to follow: Maps! Taking a page...[read more]

   One of the tenets of Buddhism is mindfulness:  being fully present and aware.  Although I am far from a religious person, I get that, at least in theory.  If one is fully committed to something, even a task as simple and familiar as eating a meal, one is more complete, more alive, or so it seems to me. (Bear...[read more]

The discussion around the subjectivity of mapping and the potential of subjective mapping tools becoming possible with the ever greater penetration of gadgets an locative media is gaining momentum. There are a number of project focusing on the output of individual mapping outputs specifically conditioning the visuals to the location,...[read more]

Following the SFO aNCL, an update to the earlier San Francisco map was needed. The slight redesign of the map islands with changed key and added graphs of temporal elements. The exclusive islandification of the area is enforce with a new frame. This provides more visual stability, allowing for stronger vertical orientation.Regarding the...[read more]

Just spotted Worldmapper - a fantastic collection of maps, that re-sizes the world based on loads of different variables. This one is a map of the UK, based on population size rather than land mass. Look at the massive bulge that is London and the Greater South East. And the almost non-existent twigs that are Wales. Kind of obvious, but...[read more]