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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See Made by one guy in Oregon
The Greatest Paper Map of the United States Youll Ever See
Made by one guy in Oregon.
American mapmakings most prestigious honor is the Best of Show award at the annual competition of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. The five most recent winners were all maps designed by large, well-known institutions: National Geographic (three times), the Central Intelligence Agency Cartography Center, and the U.S. Census Bureau. But earlier this year, the 38th annual Best of Show award went to a map created by Imus Geographicswhich is basically one dude named David Imus working in a farmhouse outside Eugene, Ore.
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According to independent cartographers I spoke with, the big mapmaking corporations of the world employ type-positioning software, placing their map labels (names of cities, rivers, etc.) according to an algorithm. For example, preferred placement for city labels is generally to the upper right of the dot that indicates location. But if this spot is already occupiedby the label for a river, say, or by a state boundary linethe city label might be shifted over a few millimeters. Sometimes a town might get deleted entirely in favor of a highway shield or a time zone marker. The result is a rough draft of label placement, still in need of human refinement. Post-computer editing decisions are frequently outsourcedsometimes to India, where teams of cheap workers will hunt for obvious errors and messy label overlaps. The overall goal is often a quick and dirty turnaround, with cost and speed trumping excellence and elegance.
By contrast, David Imus worked alone on his map seven days a week for two full years. Nearly 6,000 hours in total. It would be prohibitively expensive just to outsource that much work. But Imusa 35-year veteran of cartography whos designed every kind of map for every kind of clientdid it all by himself. He used a computer (not a pencil and paper), but absolutely nothing was left to computer-assisted happenstance. Imus spent eons tweaking label positions. Slaving over font types, kerning, letter thicknesses. Scrutinizing levels of blackness. Its the kind of personal cartographic touch you might only find these days on the hand-illustrated ski-trail maps available at posh mountain resorts.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/01/the_best_american_wall_map_david_imus_the_essential_geography_of_the_united_states_of_america_.html
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)I wonder if David Imus is related to Don Imus.
I'm addicted to maps.
I've been reading maps ever since I was able to lay down on the floor and stare at them.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)csziggy
(34,131 posts)I'll have to buy at least one - hubby and I love maps and have a good number of them. This would be an excellent addition.
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)Thanks.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Your post was timed perfectly!
NightTemplar
(49 posts)I love supporting people who produce a fine product. Achievement should have its perks.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,517 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Fool Count
(1,230 posts)He could have outsourced all that work to India and spend the freed-up time working as
a Walmart greeter - and still come out ahead.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)pamela
(3,469 posts)Thanks for posting this. I love maps!
BumRushDaShow
(128,420 posts)Thank you for posting. I checked out some of the pdfs that he had about the map and it was sad to see that 60% of Americans can't even point out Ohio on a map.
The selling point was that he has an "Independence Hall" next to my home city and one of the close-ups in a document on his site showed "Hoover Dam" along the river that it dams (cool)!
Bought!
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)surrealAmerican
(11,357 posts)He does beautiful work.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Campaign cartographer is a good windows based commercial product. Trust me, I am in awe at this gentleman. I dabble in it. These days it's for personal use, so at times paper and pencil is more than sufficient. And yes, you could produce that level of a map, but it is a lot of work.