Several Maps Noted This Week


There are so many map styles out there, some new, some old. Some old styles are being resurrected by some brave cartography professionals, some new styles are being bravely invented by the same. Here are a few of the varying styles that I took note of this week.

  • Vintage Picture Map This one is reportedly from a 1931 school book (and is for sale on Etsy, click the picture to go to the sales site. No, I don’t have any stake in this, just liked the map!). Note that these maps often have a single drab brown background, minimal labeling and feature boundaries, and lots of varied stylistic relief. There are plenty of people out there who would love a vintage-looking map like this that is personalized just for them. If you are looking for a niche, this might be one to explore.
  • Dark Colors A very modern approach is to use very bold colors throughout the map composition. Take a look at this recent example, shown here, that is for a National Geographic iPad app (thanks to @RosemaryDaley).
  • Free Many of us have no idea how the “free” “business model” approach is going to pan out but here’s another entry that I’m sure everyone is happy about. This one, by Tom Patterson, is a very nicely done map of the Hawaii seafloor. He’s made it available as a downloadable wall map jpeg file so that you can have it printed and put on your wall.

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