Thoughts on maps
I remember spending a lot of boring classes looking at my geography or history atlas under the desk, just being fascinated by the indescribable beauty of maps and the invitation for discovery by far away lands, both in terms of distance and time. I can't pinpoint a moment when I realized I loved maps. I guess I always did. Or did as soon as I understood them. Even when I was around 10 I could spend half an hour looking at the political map of Europe that was in a hallway of our house, sometimes forgetting where I was going. And as for the history and geography atlas ... my mom said I'd have to give them to my younger brother when I graduated. Well, that didn't happen. Giving away the books with the maps? No way.
Now take my River Basin Map of the World as an example. Even though I don't think it's the prettiest of my river maps (I'm partial to the US one), I do think of it as sort of the crown jewel of the collection. It took months and overcoming a lot of hurdles to make this map. I mean, just exporting the final image took like a day and a half. Every finger was crossed in the household so the laptop doesn't go up in flames exporting the millions of lines. Or there's no major error so I can start again. :) I think this map gives a different perspective to us, and to our eyes so used to maps divided into countries, with way more straight lines than comfortable. I really wish I had this map when I was younger. I honestly think the future would be brighter with more colourful, artistic maps in it. And I truly hope I can contribute to that with my work.
Leave a comment