I [Heart] Maps

Entergy Nuclear "Run Like Hell" Zones

I think most designers have what I can only call a design type of fetish, or, at least, a certain design type of project that’s a guilty pleasure. Some are more strange than others. I knew a guy who loved when he got any design project where a guitar, be it illustrated, a picture, hinted, you name it, was involved. Another friend enjoyed pastels to the point he’d try to slip it into everything, to the chagrin of a bunch of clients. Some love exploding diagrams or space ships, you name it, most designers have it. Me? It’s maps. Yes. Maps. I’ve loved maps. As a kid while others were enjoying Curious George or Dr. Seuss, I was enjoying Rand McNally Atlases. Sometimes it was fun to have more than one, you know, look for roads that were being constructed where a couple years previous there weren’t. I was lucky to have parents and grandparents who’d take a lot of road trips, so while riding with them, there was always great reading material. I would lay in my bed, on a warm summers night, with a flashlight under the sheets when I should be sleeping, and checking out a state map of Idaho. No, I didn’t want to travel to Idaho, or any state, or country, I just liked the map.

Despite trying to position myself as a graphic go-to guy with a strong emphasis in identity and branding guy with heavy geeky influence in software and technologies, if, through in some cases maybe channeling them out of the blue, a map project came along, no matter how potentially pedestrian to some, no matter how low paying sometimes even, I’d jump on them. Ad marketing campaign? Sure. Develop a global product identity. Why not. Someone wants a map from their reception to the wedding I’M ON IT! People with the simplest projects would wind up with topography and other driving features, side routes, alternate routes, you name it. As you can imagine, Google Maps, street view, Google Earth, to me, that’s like HOURS of entertainment right there. But it’s not any particular version of map really, I like them in all various types. I’d be curious to hear from any other designers what their design fetish is, provided it’s kept clean.

I’ll attach something I found recently. When I moved to the Virginia Highland area of Atlanta, I got a sweet house right off the main drag, within a stone’s throw of this great pub/tavern I had been frequenting previous years that had a three story deck. A deck so close my portable phone could reach it. I’d host parties and my place was essentially a hop-off point for various nights of carousing. Within a week of moving, maybe shorter, I had set out marking down the spots on a design notebook, sketching what’s what, and walked home to send out the map below so everyone would know what’s what. I’ve done this in other places too, I recall one from Seattle when I lived there. To me, this is just fun. Sure, I like to be paid to do maps, and have, strange as this sounds, been paid to do some maps, important ones, like emergency evacuation maps for nuclear plants (typing that even sounded odd, but made me giddy for another such project), or city guide maps, or worldwide distribution and location map, but even for myself doing a map, it just feels so good!

1999 Atlanta Virginia Highland map from my pad then. Good times. Wonder what this map would look like now a decade later?