Adventures In Mapping

This week I’ll be rocketing down to the NACIS 2018 conference, which is one of my favorite weeks of the year. In a Practical Cartography Day whirlwind session I’ll talk about a code-free workflow to make contours know which direction they are facing (illuminated contours, Tanaka contours, etc.), so they give a better sense of … Continue reading Aspect-Aware Contours

Here is a map showing the top ten most popular US National parks, by recreation visitor count. The parks are presented to scale, for a sense of comparative size.     Here are some resources for making maps that look like this, if you are so inclined or just curious. I like this topographic treatment … Continue reading The Ten Most Visited US National Parks

I’m excited to make my first trip to Scotland to speak at the Esri UK’s Scottish Conference. Shortly after I’ll be winding down to London to chat with fellow map nerds in a less formal venue. If you are in that area, and are inclined, I’ll see you there! Both events are free, by the … Continue reading Scotland

On a recent trip to the Netherlands I had some chats about reviving a vintage style of Dutch waterway navigation and planning printed maps for use with current, digital, data. The inspiration came from Dirkzwager’s Guide, a book of local waterway maps. Turns out the Dutch are really interested in waterway planning and the modifiable … Continue reading New Amsterdam Style

Here is a map made using a new extended version of the My Precious style (direct link to the style description). It shows the World Wildlife Fund’s terrestrial biomes and labels from the Living Atlas World Landforms. Lakes and rivers come from Project Linework. The font is Aniron by Pete Klassen. Happy Mapping! John Continue reading LOTR Americas

Here are a couple maps made to resemble the epic collaboration of JRR (oops, turns out it was Christopher) Tolkien and Pauline Baynes. I would consume every little pen stroke as a kid, poring over the insert maps of Middle Earth in my sister’s LOTR set (which mysteriously now live on my shelf)… The two … Continue reading Middle Earth Map Style

I’ve made a set of color resources and a protocol for how/where to apply them, here. Here are some maps of here and there using this style… UK Columbia River Gorge Cumberland Gap Grand Canyon Isle Royale Italy Leelanau Peninsula Madagascar San Marino Scotland Try it out! But be warned, it has the power to … Continue reading Imhof Style Resource