Very Expensive Maps

Vancouver “accidental cartographer” Jeff Clark discusses his 100-layer 18-month project to map the Salish Sea bioregion, the importance of testing your waterproof trail map paper, getting a big boost from the local press , the eternal hassle of bathymetric data, consulting North America’s best reference mapmakers, and when to call a map finished (never.) See his work at https://www.clarkgeomatics....

Lisbon cartographer and artist Anthony Despalins on using the visual language of French 1:50k topos to create imagined landscapes, a toolkit of pencils, poems, markers, memories and ink, drawing inspiration from the Gironde estuary and Matthew 6:9, sketching entire layouts in reverse on tracing paper, chasing altered states while creating worlds, and “living in every inch of the maps” he draws. Se...

Margaret River cartographer and surfer Grant Preller on catching waves down the Iberian coast in a 1980 VW bus, spending five years on foot marking promising breaks along 50 miles of Australian coastline, relating local history with maps, the plan to map ‘til “the end of [his] days,” and using Google Earth, 1890s coastline maps, 1:50k topos, the local library, an A0 sheet of paper, a pencil and Co...

Reno cartographer and outdoorsman Aaron Taveras on why he started making his own trail maps, “taking [his] sweet time” to create a hyper-detailed monochrome 4x5’ map of Nevada landforms, beginning a map with the raster data, an inspiring backcountry ski atlas, teaching cartography by disassembling National Park maps, and the beauty of low-amenity public lands. See Aaron’s maps at cartografix.co Ka...

Redwood City cartographer and artist Jake Coolidge on making maps the hard way with ink, graphite, a metal scribe, copper, wax and ferric chloride, the difference between in silico and in vivo cartographic generalization, creating novel projections with two-point perspective, learning to letter backwards, training the eye before you train your mouse hand, how a mapmaking process will teach you som...

Olympia cartographer and graphics editor Daniel Coe on his journey from Alaska sea kayak guide to geomorphology storyteller, what you learn in an office (and family) full of geologists, getting laid off and traveling the world for a year, how the paths of ancient glaciers shaped his neighborhood, the hidden landscapes revealed by infrared laser pulses, and how a few minutes at work adjusting one c...

Nelson artist-cartographer Anton Thomas discusses his travels from Utah to the Himalayas, creating “that mix of serious cartography and serious art,” logging his drawing time with a stopwatch, collecting photo references for 1,500 species, how drawing the little cartouche map-within-a-map can get out of hand, and closing on three years of work to finish his 40x24" map of the world. See his wo...

Cupertino cartographer, designer and artist Nat Slaughter on using hardcore wildlife survey techniques to count squirrels with Jamie Allen , putting sound installations in shipping containers, the two years of shoe-leather data collection that went into his 5x2’ Central Park map, his desire to walk from Basel to the North Sea, how a one-hour deadline can have (occasionally) sublime results, and an...

Penobscot, Maine mapmaker Jane Crosen discusses her 40+ year cartographic career, the sound advice of “when in doubt, leave it out,” creating spoof maps for the nautical market, producing two expanded and rearranged editions of George Colby's 1881 atlases of Downeast Maine counties, becoming “[her] own typesetting machine” with a calligraphy pen, the feeling of looking through an airplane wind...

Madrid architect and mapmaker Jug Cerović discusses the transit cartographer’s ability to shape reality, drawing hundreds of bus lines by hand, mapping first and visiting later, installing guerrilla maps in his hometown of Belgrade, organizing a new map conference , helping Apple create a good public transit layer, and how seeing Istakhri’s 1,100-year-old maps will make one feel like a tyro. See h...

Somerset pen-and-ink artist Jeff Murray discusses sketching across the world during his ski bum years, selling his first print off a folding table in New Zealand, drawing in ten-hour chunks, the joy of selling art out of a gazebo, why he works at the continental scale, playing with perspective, his two hand-painted globes, and the choice words people have when his hyper-detailed maps don’t include...

Union City cartographer and Wall Street Journal graphics editor  Carl Churchill  talks his map vocation and EDM avocation, spending two weeks on an elaborate wildflower-detection remote sensing script before an editor (correctly) tossed it, making fantasy maps with GIS tools, what drum loops taught him about radar interferometry, why "get paid to do what you love" will make you fall out...

Columbia designer, illustrator, artisan and country songwriter Elliot Park on his ten year quest to hydraulically press a good map into good materials. Discussed: the lack of texture in today’s stuff, moving from DEM to CNC to a big beautiful copper/leather map, learning by (expensive) trial, the quest for a leather globe, and the challenge of creating lasting art that’s meant to be touched. See h...

Tacoma map artist and chorographer Kirsten Sparenborg discusses her huge body of work in ink and watercolor, her years in architectural illustration, an ill-starred mural commission, making her own pigments out of local rocks, and her next 10-panel 46 sq. ft. project. See her work at turnofthecenturies.com New Orleans watercolor block map 3x3 ft. Boston watercolor block map Ink street map of Balti...

Lisbon transit cartographer and designer  Aurélien Boyer-Moraes  talks learning to use a computer at 19, creating his first 3x4 ft. transit map of an imagined Brazilian city after reading Jacques Bertin’s  Semiology of Graphics  cover-to-cover, preempting Google Street View in Lyon with his 6x6 Seagull camera, ten years of designing transit maps for French cities with Attoma, and his heavily-annot...

Philadelphia cartographer and New York Times graphics editor Bill Marsh describes his 30-year project to map his adopted city, his collection of hyper-dense axonometric maps, getting the Philadelphia Inquirer to chopper a photographer over the city for him, and the bygone days of hand-inked editorial maps (an early project: illustrating the nuclear annihilation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.) You can...

Green Pond wildlife biologist and map designer for New World Cartography discusses working with artist Tony Waters , radio-tracking northern bobwhites (quail) under the pines of the Conecuh National Forest, memorializing Aldo the Llewellin Setter on a map of game birds, and agreeing to a 9x14-ft project before knowing exactly how to uh, install a 9x14-ft project ( it turned out great ). See Folk’s...

Val Marie independent cartographer Alex McPhee describes learning to create enormous reference maps, his pre-mapping road trips, rural Saskatchewanians’ surprise in finding every train station on his provincial map (they didn’t believe him), how cartographers need to observe people interacting with their maps, and how nothing sells 3x5-ft maps like a radio interview. See his work at awmcphee.ca 3x...

Bristol textile artist and mapmaker Kate Tarling talks freehand machine embroidering coastlines onto lampshades, her preference for silk paints (despite the hassle), color inspiration from her garden, and how she does most of her sketching in her head during dog walks. See her work at katetarlingtextiles.com Ekta Kaul Dissolving embroidery substrate: print/sketch a pattern on it, stick it to the f...

Fremantle-based mapmaker, artist and illustrator Sara Drake on her first globe, her two-year wait list, the challenge of photographing her ultra-detailed 3D maps, and adding to a piece until “someone physically wrestles it out of [her] hands.” See her maps at saradrake.com India map Mexico map Her photographer Henry Whitehead Map artists she likes: Kate Tarling Linda Gass Bodys Isek Kingelez Miche...

British illustrator and cartographer Mike Hall talks early mapping projects of his native Harlow, his favorite map aesthetic, the relaxing practice of coastline-tracing and how he will place 1,500 labels but will not make a “Where's Wally?” map. See his work at thisismikehall.com An early hit: his walking map of Brockley, London Kew Gardens and Wakehurst maps Map of Europe (with a hand-traced...

Oregon cartographic designer, illustrator and production artist Anna Eshelman talks sketching Mt. Rainier while pulling 26-mile days on the Wonderland Trail, why she starts her illustrations with a blunt pencil, and the enormous manual shaded relief she’d finish if she had any time. See her work at annaeshelman.com Garnet Point Trail Map Wonderland Trail at Night Tom Patterson’s shaded relief site...

Australian cartographer and illustrator  Alex Hotchin  talks about her first map, cycling from Scotland to Cambodia sans GPS, and “a career drawing how beautiful the world can be.” See her work at alexhotchin.com Alex's first creative map: bottom of the page, “Jericho” Martijn Doolaard’s  Two Years on a Bike NACIS Atlas of Design   Ed Fairburn’s portraits in maps    Sara Drake’s handmade maps...