Adventures In Mapping

Here is a run-down with all the carto nitty-gritty on how to make the following map: It shows the locations of each recorded hurricane and tropical storm since the mid 1800s. When viewed in aggregate, the hurricanes appear to coalesce into a single great hurricane eye. It’s a basic map, with some cartographic punch. Super simple to … Continue reading How-To: Hurricane Map

http://vannizhang.github.io/blasts-viz-app/ Here are recorded seismic events since 1963 that have been deemed to be man made. One benefit of covering the globe in a network of seismic sensors to detect earthquake and volcanic activity, is that you also tend to pick up the rumblings of a not-so-natural source. What sorts of explosions could be big enough to … Continue reading Blast Map

To my eye, calm, clear, seas have a distinct look to them. A shallow aqua that deepens to blue. The gradual reduction of seafloor clarity at greater depths. A faint web-like reflective surface. But maps that I see of the oceans, or deeper waters, don’t really look like that. For all the efforts in getting brown-to-green … Continue reading Carto Hack: Mapping Water Depth with Opacity

I’ve been reading Randall Munroe’s What If before bed lately, which, in addition to even more bizarre than usual dreams, gives me mappy sorts of ideas. Recently I read the chapter about draining the world’s oceans via a hole in the Mariana Trench. Coincidentally, I’ve been playing with using additive opacity rather than deepening color to … Continue reading Draining the Challenger Deep

If you are the sort of cartographer who digs reading about other cartographers’ processes, then there is a narrow chance that you will find this how-to interesting. Hopefully in a helpful sense. Check it. It describes the steps taken to make map images for a story map about refugees, The Uprooted. Additionally, here is a … Continue reading The Cartography of “The Uprooted”

Yesterday was National Signing Day -the college football equivalent of showing off your sparkling new engagement ring to anyone who’ll look. These days, lots of people like looking. High School seniors the nation over sign commitments to, and awkwardly wear caps of, their new homes for the next four-ish years. Here is a map of the … Continue reading The 2016 College Football Recruiting Class

Hi There! I’m John Nelson, a cartographer and designer living in Lansing, Michigan. You may have arrived here via my sweet sweet beloved prior domain, uxblog.idvsolutions.com. Anyway, nothing here yet, but hang in there. In the meantime, help yourself to some links… linkedin.com/in/johnmnelson twitter.com/John_M_Nelson behance.net/johnmnelsonmaps Continue reading Welcome!