This past weekend I came across a reference to a short story titled “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu, in the anthology Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman. “Naturally” this was something I had to check out and I am so glad I did. It’s a fabulous short story that manages to evoke fantastical imagery and Steinbeck-style powerful, omniscient dialog into a 10 to 20 minute read with themes ranging from politics to war strategy to environmental ethics, and of course, to the power of mapping.

The story spans multiple generations of bees and wasps. The wasps are academically more advanced than the bees, with whom they need to share resources, but also more aggressive. Their academic prowess is most notable in the cartographic arena, enabling them to pick up and move under adverse conditions due to their detailed mapping abilities, while the bees are more limited (but, crucially, not completely without the ability to learn and change).

I’m not going to write any more about the story, as it is short enough for you to pick it up and read it yourself. However, I can say that I am more than pleased to see a reference to “beautiful cartography” in the story. And the great thing is that the phrase “beautiful cartography” is used in its fullest, least trite, sense: beautiful means not only aesthetic, but also elucidatory and abundantly detailed. These are indeed the qualities that I’m always pushing us all to strive for in our maps.

Here’s a map submitted for our perusal by reader John Potter of Escape Key Graphics. The map was created for the 2013 Palm Beach International Boat Show. Potter makes other boat show maps as well and used mostly Sketchup to create this one. Check out his entertaining “making of the map” video, below (though don’t say I didn’t warn you–the frames switch quickly and you might get some vertigo!!!)

Do you feel the need to be more creative? No problem! Just put up a coat of green paint says German researchers. Maybe that study influenced the choice of Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year: Emerald?

The Denver Art Museum has a small exhibition on right now, titled What is Modern?, featuring furniture (and a few posters) spanning dates from the 1800s to today. These furniture designs are arguably the most well-known embodiments of the modern art movement, which is characterized by non-profligate products. But we also see the mod-movement in some of today’s map designs. For example, two studios that embrace the modern aesthetic are: the senseable city lab at MIT and Stamen Design.

The colors, the angles, the typography in the posters, and the sheer playfulness and quirkiness in the furniture pieces can all inspire mod-map making.

Looking for some inspiration? Here are some snippets from mapformation’s cartography collection. Go to their site to see the digital originals.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science