@pinakographos@mapstodon.space
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pinakographos

@pinakographos@mapstodon.space

An arboreal, poly, gender non-participating mapmaker and cat foster. I like to share my process, write tutorials, and otherwise informally teach cartography (with support from many of you on Patreon).

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pinakographos, to random
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New foster friends. Three under-socialized 5-week-olds. Two of them are preparing to hiss at me if I get any closer.

By the time they go back in about 3 weeks they'll likely be lap cats climbing all over me.

pinakographos, to random
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After a long slog, I've finished an initial test of this idea: a few of the longest rivers (depending on how you measure) in Michigan, modeled after the comparisons that were popular in the 19th century (e.g. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200m.gcw0013960/?sp=6&loclr=blogmap). When time/energy allow, will do more later. Your feedback is welcome! See this thread for a few bits of context, highlights, and some detail images.

pinakographos,
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I gave most everything a fair bit of wobbling, as is my wont (see: https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2023/10/26/on-the-practice-of-wobbling/). The city grid symbology, hachures, rivers, etc. — stroke widths vary, line spacings and angles shift around a bit. Just to give more of an organic appearance that fits the style.

pinakographos,
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I'm not sure if I've seen a manicule used as a north arrow before. Maybe that looks weird? Also not sure if having so many north indicators is distracting. Basically, I segmented the rivers/etc. and bent them to straighten them out (see how here: https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/a-matter-of-perspective/). Because of that, I wanted to indicate the changing direction of north by putting an arrow roughly in the middle of each straightened segment.

pinakographos,
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@jspath55 That's pretty neat!

pinakographos, to random
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Cartographic freelancers unite! It's time for the biennial survey of freelancer pay. Please help empower the freelance community by sharing your experiences and by passing this around! It's open to anyone who makes freelance maps, either as a sideline or career.

https://forms.gle/2FLJod5TLVqie1GSA

pinakographos, to random
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Briefly popping my head back up on social media to mention that there's something new on the blog. I've just published "Another Atlas of Minor Projects," a sequel to my 2020 volume of cartographic ephemera. https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/another-atlas-of-minor-projects/
If you like it, pass it around!

A page from an atlas, showing a map projection cobbled together from several other projections, and titled "Useless Projections: Layer Cake"
A page featuring a map produced in the style of 1980s BBS ANSI art, along with descriptive text.

pinakographos, to random
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Lots of mapmakers run small online shops that would welcome your support during the holidays. Here's a list featuring a bunch of gift options to explore: http://bit.ly/map-sellers

Please share!

(Also I'm still seeking a volunteer to make us a website that links to the various sellers. Preferably one that can shuffle the order sellers are seen in so that no one gets priority)

pinakographos, to Dragonlance
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Many are preparing for the . Day 4 is "A Bad Map." Given our community's history of toxic critique & gatekeeping, I invite you consider novel ways to approach this prompt. Perhaps explore: "what makes something a ?" Instead of choosing colors, fonts, etc. that can accidentally mock others at the start of their mapping journey (pushing them away from our community), here's an approach that I tried last year: a map that pushes back against being seen as a map.

pinakographos,
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Just wrote this up for the blog and here's a better way of phrasing my point: This year, when prompted to make “a bad map” for the , I invite you to think of “bad” in more ways than just “what a beginner would make.”
https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2023/10/17/challenging-the-idea-of-a-bad-map/

pinakographos, (edited ) to random
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Since lots of people missed out last time, I'm bringing The Projection Collection back for one final print run: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pinakographos/reviving-the-projection-collection?ref=bdb15w

If you've always wanted map projection trading cards, now is your chance. Please share around so that no one misses out on the last opportunity.

pinakographos, to maps
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Just dug up this side project I did in November of last year and gave it a couple of tweaks (accidentally left on a layer that I meant to turn off). Still pretty pleased with how it turned out.
https://somethingaboutmaps.com/Olympus-Provincial-Park

pinakographos, to random
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If you are a NACIS member (an org I hope will make it onto Mastodon soon!), I hope you'll consider taking this anonymous NACIS Census: https://forms.gle/DFyba5x5FqdzJpiJ7

NACIS plans to repeat this census annually, to better understand the identities and experiences of the NACIS community and to see how it changes over time. If you're a member, please take a few minutes to fill it out, and share with other NACIS members!

pinakographos, to random
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For the next 2.5 hours I'm doing mindless work; so I'm holding "Office Hours" (here & on Twitter). Feel free to reply here with questions about Illustrator, static map design, typography, projections, etc. and I'll see if I can offer some tips (not guaranteed to be useful).

pinakographos,
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@mrcompletely Happy to try to help. Are you using Illustrator to draw out features, or are you getting geographic data files? Cartographers have a lot of different workflows, but people like me use GIS programs (software that can manipulate geospatial data). I tidy up data, filter it, put it in a proper projection, etc. And then I style things and label them in Illustrator. So if you're not using GIS, that may be a key piece. Most cartographers don't "draw," per se.

pinakographos,
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@mrcompletely My website, somethingaboutmaps.com links to various videos and tutorials and blog posts that show off process details from the particular way that I work (which, again, is one of many styles; some people do just hand-illustrate).

pinakographos,
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@mrcompletely Good luck! Programs like QGIS can be obscure at times, but they also have robust user communities, so there's usually an answer to any of your questions online. Just take it a bit at a time; plenty of people in the carto-community are self-taught.

pinakographos, to random
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Useless Projection #5: Layer Cake

Six delicious projections stacked atop one another, so you don't have to choose your favorite.

pinakographos, to random
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Here I am, a refugee from the slow collapse of Twitter.

The hardest thing to rebuild will be the unintentional connections. My colleagues will congregate in new spaces, but our ability to reach out to a bigger audience, ones who weren't looking for our work, is what kept me at Twitter. It's a wound that can heal, but it will take time.

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