2016 screamed for map clarity, elegance and personality.

Clarity—how fast can the person reading the map use the map to answer the question they’ve asked of the map.

Elegance—related to clarity, but our customers want a map that does one thing (maybe, two things), for their singular use.

Personality—using every tool in our chest, 2016 caused us to create maps that communicated not only the customer’s unique brand, but also the spirit behind why they are offering this map (this view of the world).

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Texas Map

We can now create this level of detail for all of the United States and Canada.  The beautiful terrain imagery projects a feel of the land’s surface.  (Nebraska remains boring . . . sorry Nebraska.)

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Juneau Alaska Walking Map

Talk about a singular use map: cruise ship passenger is handed a printed map as they disembark, and the map is used to navigate (while walking) to where they want to go.  We love the colors and textures of this map.  For each map we picked a single attraction that we would create in 3D (in this case, Saint Nicholas Church).

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Dallas/Fort Worth Map

We created this map of a huge metropolitan area, with many points of interest for a tourism client.  Smooth visual continuity fought bitterly with the mandatory elegance, but the map provided everything the client wanted in a fresh retro style.

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World Map

This map’s route to simplification created some divergent perspectives from our staff.  We especially like the “look and feel” and how the map reader can gain confidence that they can understand all of Europe in only moments from a world view.

We centered Czech Republic for the close-up image.  My husband and I went to Prague for the first time over Christmas 2016.  In all our travels we’ve never gone to a city that so compelled us to return—or so soon.  See you there in 2017.

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Southern Africa

Our favorite map of 2016 is this coolish, crispy steampunk creation of southern Africa highlighting safari itineraries.  An almost visually random choice of fonts, creates everything we went for: clarity, elegance and personality.

We hope you enjoyed a look at these maps.  With the advancements of cartographic technology over the last three years, making your map clear, elegant and personal doesn’t have to cost more.  As ever, we’re the passionate map geeks here to answer your map questions and to give precise Tampa weather updates.