Years ago, I began crafting a love song to my homeland. I worked on it for weeks in 2014, and again for a while in 2015. And then I laid it aside, very nearly finished, for several years. I have trouble finishing big projects sometimes, as I get distracted by some new interesting thing. And … Continue reading Returning to my Roots
How to do Map Stuff: A Live Community Sharing Event
Friends, many of us are stuck at home during this pandemic, and will be for a while (and we're the fortunate ones, vs. those whose jobs force them to regularly risk infection). It's a stressful, anxious, and isolating time. So here's an idea I had at 1:00 AM, one random night: “How to do Map … Continue reading How to do Map Stuff: A Live Community Sharing Event
Financial Transparency: 2019 Edition
As is now my annual tradition, it's time for me to tell everyone how much money I make. As a freelancer, I often wonder how I am doing financially as compared to my colleagues. Not out of a sense of competition, but just to answer the persistent question: is this normal? Am I earning a "typical" … Continue reading Financial Transparency: 2019 Edition
Freelance Survey 2.0
You might recall that in 2018, Aly Ollivierre and I conducted a survey of freelance mapmakers. I've long tried to bring more transparency to carto-freelancing, and I think knowing more about what our colleagues are doing is empowering. This year we're doing it again, with some revised questions (thanks to feedback from a number of … Continue reading Freelance Survey 2.0
Maps in the Kitchen
I teach introductory cartography from time to time, and over the years I have developed an analogy that I share with students on the first day of class. The Analogy: Cartography is like Cooking In cooking, you use various tools (knives, pans, etc.) to transform ingredients into a finished dish. In mapping, you use various … Continue reading Maps in the Kitchen
Annual Report: 2019
Friends, I was very fortunate to receive support from a number of you in 2019. And, continuing what is becoming an annual tradition, I want to be transparent in reporting back on what your support has enabled me to do. In no particular order, in 2019, I was able to: Conduct a series of livestream … Continue reading Annual Report: 2019
Something of Myself
When I started out my mapping career, I had a dream of eventually making my own atlas. And, in the following years, I was fortunate enough to get to work on a few, including the Atlas of Design, and the Ecological Atlas of the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Of these various atlases, my latest … Continue reading Something of Myself
Cyanotype World Tour
Friends, if you've been following along at all on Twitter, you might have seen that I've been big into cyanotyping these last few months. I've been making prints of maps using water and sunlight (and some chemicals). https://twitter.com/pinakographos/status/1188516436332953608?s=20 As part of my explorations of this technique, I've spent some months creating a couple of versions … Continue reading Cyanotype World Tour
Revisiting the Colors of Mars
Note that this post has been superseded by a more complete, ongoing inventory: An Inventory of Martian Hypsometric Tints. I have a peculiar and growing hobby of collecting Martian hypsometric tinting schemes: those sets of colors that cartographers use to depict elevations on the Red Planet. Unfortunately, the great majority of Mars maps that I have … Continue reading Revisiting the Colors of Mars
Monochrome Mapping Results
Gentle readers, I am very excited to announce that the Monochrome Mapping Competition has finally wrapped up! Over 150 entries were submitted from all over the world, which was far beyond my expectations. My thanks to everyone who made this possible, including the judges and the entrants. I was inspired to see so much beautiful … Continue reading Monochrome Mapping Results
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