Adventures In Mapping

And if you are feeling especially festive, you can ply your cutting and pasting fingers at this more complex ornament from last year. Continue reading Dymaxion Globe Christmas Ornament Thing

Dear Fellow Map Nerds, I have been painting GIS pixels with a watercolor brush for a while now but I’ve never shown you how easy it is. Here is a couple-minute video showing it from start to finish. I’ve spared you my nasally Midwestern narration and just dropped in some charming little folksy bluegrass riffs. … Continue reading Mega Easy Watercolor Painting in ArcGIS Pro

Of course you know I love vignettes at the edges of maps. They help draw our eyeballs in to the focus area. So naturally I’d also love a vignette effect for area of interest polygons—not just around the perimeter of a layout, but a nice soft edge to a specific geographic shape. So, here is … Continue reading Soft-Edged Areas of Interest

You may or may not have attended the presentation Sarah Bell and I gave at Adobe MAX, called “Map Making for Designers: It’s Easier than You Think.” Either way, please indulge in the nitty gritty related to each and every thing I may have shown or mentioned. Prepare for a link-blast… How to create a … Continue reading Adobe MAX 2019

I’ll post each new hack, as they are made, here. Newest at the top. Get ready to live… Continue reading One Minute Map Hacks

My son, Juneau, loves that I make maps. And he has lots of suggestions for maps that ought to be made. Most of them are great ideas—so great, actually, that they have been done a thousand times (a map of where people have more or less money, a map of people’s religions, a map showing … Continue reading Juneau’s Age Map. And Stuff.

Here is a 10-minute talk I gave about the making of the absurdly tall Appalachian Trail journal map. Check out all the outstanding map nerd talks here. Continue reading NACIS 2019 Presentation: Why-Do & How-To for a fun map

This list comes from my distant past as a UX designer but I just happened across it and think it bears a bounce. Here it is, largely as it appeared nine years ago. I think these fails still hold up…unfortunately. … Every interface has an energy budget –there is no way around that. Some interfaces … Continue reading 5 UX Fails

Some time ago I made a map of the Great Lakes in the style of the little paper craft maps I’d see in the gift shops of every beach community. And I described the arduous process of creating it for yourself. But why do hard things when you can do the same thing easily? Here is a style for ArcGIS … Continue reading Paper Cut Maps

Here are some maps in a projection that shows the world’s oceans as a single body of water. Read how this projection came about here. Happy Mapping! John Continue reading Spilhaus