Here are a few of my favourite maps from 2023. They’re in no particular order. They’re not a top ten. There are plenty more. I’ve likely not included any that you may prefer, and that’s fine because it’s just a list of stuff that caught my particular eye this last year. Rather than summarize what I enjoyed about each piece I’m going to present them without comment but I enourage you to use the links to head to the original posts where you’ll find hi-res copies and useful commentary by the cartographers who made them. Have a very mappy 2024! Ocean temperatures around the Arctic (link) By Gaëlle ..read more

This week, I was really taken by this beautiful map created in the style of a US National Park Service map by Andy Woodruff. I’ve followed Andy’s work for many years and his maps are always high on quality, as well as the thought he puts into the design process. I think this latest piece of work can teach us a few things. First, that great cartography, which looks effortless, is not easy. Sure, anyone can make a map, but making a great map demands careful thought, a knowledge of the craft, and the experience of knowing how to approach the hundreds of decisions that are required in getting fro ..read more

You may or may not be aware that my favourite map is Harry Beck’s wonderful 1933 London Underground map. And I’m in equal measure not a fan of either the modern version, or the countless ways in which the subway map genre is used and mis-used. This often includes redesign of its style for no apparent reason – like the London Underground map in the style of Vignelli’s New York City map, or the Chicago ‘L’ in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. I find these insanely lazy and pointless. But come up with something original and I get interested. I recently saw this map by Abbas Husain of Bagman Studio ..read more

The headline map of this wonderful article by Alyssa Fowers is what caught my eye and becomes this blog’s map of the week. It’s just an illustration rather than a set of gridded doughnut charts. The article has more purposeful maps within. They are well designed maps in their own right. But who doesn’t love a doughnut? I’m off to find one ..read more

While at the Mountain Cartography workshop in Colorado last week I got to see a raft of spectacular maps. Chief among them in my opinion was this spectacular map by Eric Knight. It depicts the Tien Shan mountain range of central Asia as a panorama meaning it’s almost planimetric towards the near view at the foot of the map, with a gentle curve toward the horizon. The mountain peaks therefore become seen in almost aspect (plan oblique). The map is huge, at about 60in across, and the detail is exquisite. The use of colour and texture delineates all sorts of varied terrain, and the labels sit un ..read more

In a week where I was about to make the National Geographic/Utrecht University World Water Map my Map of the Week I was distracted by a completely different map altogether. Twitter user @MrPerfectlyFine made a map of the location of Taylor Swift during her performance at the start of her new ‘Eras’ tour. It’s a colour-coded network map with each ‘Era’ symbolised by a separate colour. His attention to detail then took the overall combined map into several deconstructed maps for each ‘era’. Here’s the map for ‘Lover’ with additional set list annotations. Presumably the lines show the starting p ..read more

I’m not particularly a follower of fashion, and as any cartographer will know we’re not a profession that supports a life of couture clothing. But I was interested in the announcement of Christian Dior’s Summer 2023 collection which features full print maps. To be specific, a fabric which apparently Dior designed in the 1950s called Plan de Paris. Lots of bargains to be had if the size of your wallet/purse is big enough. For a small strip of the fabric (called a scarf) you can part with $250, or you can go all in with the full length trench coat for $3,600. A t-shirt will set you back a cool ..read more

As lawmakers in US states continue to make decisions on banning abortion clinics, Five Thirty Eight have published an excellent map on the impact closures have. It uses a bivariate choropleth map, with interactive overlays. Visit the site to see the original. First off, it’s a brave choice of map type because it’s not the simplest of maps for people to interpret because it combines two variables. But equally, why should we always assume a readership can only process basic maps? And if they’re exposed to these sort of more complex maps then maybe one outcome is that readers become more aware ..read more

It’s been one year since the invasion of Ukraine. in the early months I explored various ways of representing the displacement of refugees and invading forces through maps. The maps I made featured in a talk I gave at the 2022 British Cartographic Society conference entitled ‘Dogs, disease, and displacement’ The Ukraine maps feature from about 14:30 in the recorded video. On the anniversary of the invasion this week, how are maps being used to reflect on the conflict. Here’s just a few that piqued my interest. The Washington Post have created a quite wonderful scrollytelling piece on the 600-m ..read more

Often, it’s the simplest of ideas that works. And more often than not, it’s a question posed, that can be answered by a simple map. So if the question is where would you draw a line across England and Wales so that 50% of the population is to the north, and 50% to the south what sort of map would you make? Well you don’t have to because Alasdair Rae has done it for you with this beautifully simple, yet elegant animated solution. I love that it’s monochrome – it doesn’t need anything else, and the beauty of the animated form is you can stop the video at any point to muse over the proportion of ..read more