Blending-Mode Label Coloring Last winter, I was experimenting with applying blending modes to label text, as a way of annotating a map without a heavy-handed solid fill or double stroke. I wanted the labels to recede when looking at the map as a whole, but then appear if the eye stopped for a closer look. Labels … Continue reading Ghost Labels
Recently, I was tinkering with ways of creating the illusion of depth for mapping water. The gist is that you can use increasing opacity in deeper areas to get the effect of diffused light and reduced visibility. Like in real life. But there is no reason you have to go restricting your shenanigans to ocean environments. … Continue reading Misty Mountains
I love binning things up into hexagons. So much cooler looking than image heatmaps, and you can interact with them. More complex than squares, so you get some geometric variability in your surface, but just compact enough so that the shape isn’t distracting. Plus, nature loves the hexagon, so we are wired to admire it. Why fight … Continue reading Hexperiment
Because I already had the data, and I like cobbling together clunky animated GIFs, here is a little visualization of the local recruitment neighborhoods for the top 25 college football programs. In some cases, these drive times mean very little, since teams like Stanford and Notre Dame don’t really recruit from local areas. But most … Continue reading Recruitment Neighborhoods
PhotoChrome.io is a color resource for designers, developers, or the just plain curious. Jinnan Zhang and I have been tinkering with an idea for making word-derived color palettes by sampling colors from mashed up photos. By searching tagged images, then melting them into a single impressionistic image, you can squeeze out a color palette that … Continue reading PhotoChrome.io
Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh; it’s the first week of college football! Thousands of players, far from home, are gearing up for their games this Saturday. Wait, how far from home? Since I can never fully silence the part of my brain that tries to extrude ideas out into maps, I’ll just revel in it. Here are the top … Continue reading College Football Air Mile Index, 2016
Here is a look at the “absolute” world record progression since 1960. Last night Bear and I stayed up to watch the Men’s Pole Vaulting event, where Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva and France’s Renaud Lavillenie battled it out in a terrific competition. Lavillenie is the current world record holder, which got me to wondering what the … Continue reading Men’s Pole Vaulting World Record Progression
*** This method has been used more recently to map the past six months of drought afflicting the southeastern United States. *** Maps This is a map showing over five years of drought data (285 weeks, combined into a single view) in the United States. The dots are proportionally sized by the amount of time over the past five … Continue reading Five Years of Drought
Ah the trusty old, well-worn, United States of [Thiessen Polygon] Map. But at least I was a relatively early adopter (the original version was made in…yikes!…2011). Sure, this post will show you how to make these boundaries, but more interestingly, it will show you how to make a chalkboard-style map! Now pay attention or teacher … Continue reading How-To: United States of Craigslist, Chalkboard Map
This is The Global Sharknado Threat Map. Created by an unprecedentedly cross-discipline team of nameless chain-smoking scientists in white lab coats, this map is intended as a resource to coastal communities regarding the nature and likelihood of a sharknado incursion. Right? This map was originally conceived by Drew Skau, and commissioned by Visual.ly. This is … Continue reading How-To: Sharknado Map
