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Thread: The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See

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    The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See

    Maps and cartography have been an interest of mine from childhood. I thought some here might also find this interesting.

    Made by one guy in Oregon.

    By Seth Stevenson|Posted Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, at 7:38 AM ET


    American mapmaking’s 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 Geographics—which is basically one dude named David Imus working in a farmhouse outside Eugene, Ore.


    At first glance, Imus’ “The Essential Geography of the United States of America” may look like any other U.S. wall map. It’s about 4 feet by 3 feet. It uses a standard, two-dimensional conic projection. It has place names. Political boundaries. Lakes, rivers, highways.


    Imus map of the United States.


    So what makes this map different from the Rand McNally version you can buy at a bookstore? Or from the dusty National Geographic pull-down mounted in your child’s elementary school classroom? Can one paper wall map really outshine all others—so definitively that it becomes award-worthy?


    I’m here to tell you it can. This is a masterful map. And the secret is in its careful attention to design.


    These days, almost all the data cartographers use is provided by the government and is freely available in the public domain. Anybody can download databases of highways, airports, and cities, and then slap a crude map together with the aid of a plotter. What separates a great map from a terrible one is choosing which data to use and how best to present it.

    read more here... http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/c..._america_.html

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    OFBUACMKA's Avatar Banned
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    Hey! I can see my house!

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    Vilifier of Zombies's Avatar Senior Member
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    My GPS would disagree with me but that's a nice map...

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    It's a beautiful piece of work...I'm going to try to find the guy and order one for my wall. Nice work and something he can be proud of.

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    i like the fact there are no red or blue states -just "These United States". It's a work of detail, and beauty.

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    Conley's Avatar Senior Member
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    Neat. This was definitely a labor of love. Here's a close up - his is on the left.


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