You know what a contemporary map looks like — boring, informational. Point A to Point B. But one peek into Gestalten’s beautiful book A Map of the World, a collection of the “contrarians” of cartography, will change your mind. These maps — colorful, inaccurate, cut from paper or painted on, make us want to take a thousand journeys. As Antonis Antoniou writes in the book’s preface, they “act as an antidote to cartographic monotony and the modern-day obsession for accuracy… Ultimately, it’s about storytelling. It’s about re-humanizing the process of understanding our surroundings and through this, ourselves. In all their differences, these maps allows space for dreaming.” Check out a few of our favorites after the jump, and then be sure to head here for more about A Map of the World. … Read More
Maps
An Incredibly Detailed Hand-Drawn Map of New York City
Search for “New York City map” on Etsy, and you’ll get over 1,000 results — but we doubt many of then can compare with Jenni Sparks‘ incredible hand-drawn version, which we discovered via BLDGWLF. The London-based illustrator and designer (who previously made a similar map of her home city) renders Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan in amazing detail, down to individual buildings and landmarks. Click through to see the full map and close-ups of individual areas, and head to Evermade if you’d like to buy a print of your own. … Read More
Incredible, Intricate Maps from the Medieval Era
Maps have been around ever since humans developed the ability to imagine — and the ingenuity to chart — the larger world around them. Of course, the maps that existed in antiquity don’t necessarily look like the ones we’re used to using today (you can’t drop a pin, for one thing), but many of them are incredibly gorgeous, artistic masterpieces as well as tools. We stumbled across this collection of maps from the 11th to the 14th centuries over at Retronaut and plucked out some of the most interesting ones to show you here. Click through to see some of our favorites, and then head here and here for a veritable treasure trove. … Read More
An ‘Infinite Map’ of David Foster Wallace’s North America
The futuristic Boston of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is a place both familiar and strange to those who know the area, its real-life landmarks mingling with off-kilter fictional locations. Of course, with over 1000 pages and nearly 400 footnotes, it’s easy to get lost in the world Wallace creates. So we’re grateful to William Beutler for creating Infinite Atlas — a pretty, Google Maps-powered annotated guide to the city and surrounding area — and Infinite Map, a 24″ x 36″ poster of O.N.A.N. (the Organization of North American Nations that encompasses the United States, Canada, and Mexico), which is available for purchase. Both should be great tools for those about to take on the challenge of reading Infinite Jest, but even if you have no intention of picking up the book, just think how smart you’ll look to dates who to see the print hanging on your wall. Click through to get a closer look at Infinite Map. … Read More
An Illuminating Map of TV Show Settings Across the US
Perhaps because we live in New York, and New Yorkers notoriously believe that our city is the center of the universe, it doesn’t often occur to us how odd it is that so many TV shows are set here — or across the Northeast in general. What’s fascinating about the map above, which shows where… Read More
Minimalist Graphic Maps of American Universities
These cool minimalist maps of American universities by Tony and Katie Rodono, which we first spotted over at Explore, make us want to do color-coded fly-bys over our alma maters. But since that’s pretty impossible, we’ll settle for clicking through these gorgeous and strangely calming maps, rendered in each university’s colors. Click through to see some of our favorite grids, and let us know if the Rodonos have captured the spirit of your own university in the comments — if not, head here to check out even more or custom order a map of your favorite locale. … Read More
Check Out an Amazing Middle Earth-Style US Map
Thanks to redditor Jvlivs, we now have a pretty good idea of what a map of the United States illustrated by Christopher and J.R.R. Tolkien would have looked like; Jvlivs based his idea of dividing the country into six “mega states” on Joel Garreau’s 1981 book The Nine Nations of North… Read More
The Only 'Game of Thrones' Map You'll Ever Need
There are a ton of fan-made maps out there depicting the world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series — not to mention some pretty impressive fan art — but this one is by far the best we’ve ever seen. Created by superfan TheMountainGoat by combining books from the maps… Read More
A Very Exciting Star Map of New York City
It’s no surprise that Manhattan is swarming with celebrities, who make their lavish homes in neighborhoods like Soho and Tribeca and the Upper East Side. But never before have we seen so many of their dwellings mapped for the convenience of those who might want to seek out Tina Fey in the West 70s, brunch… Read More
Wanted: The Ultimate Song Map
Not sure how to get from Penny Lane to Itchycoo Park? Curious where Highway to Hell intersects with 8th Avenue Heartache? Never fear — just consult this amazing song map from creative collective Dorothy, which is, you guessed it, a “road map of song titles.” Some references are universal and some are for true music nerds only, and as the creators say, “just like places in our own neighbourhood, some are really good and some are best avoided – remember ‘Love House’ by Sam Fox?” Yikes. Click through to check out the map, and head over to Dorothy to buy a print for your own House of Fun. … Read More
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