Thursday, October 11, 2012

A Series of Tiny Maps

Last year I started working on a series of very small maps for The Wilderness Society. I have made small maps in the past (for example, see 'Biggest Map, Smallest Map'), but this is the first time I've made an entire series of them.

The maps are being placed in fact sheets that TWS is using to communicate with their membership and the larger community about what they are working on in different regions of the country. The maps all need to have a similar look and feel, but the geographies and key features vary tremendously so there have been some interesting cartographic challenges. Overall, it's been a fun project, and I learned a lot about working small. The main lesson:  small maps are much, much harder to make than big ones. To paraphrase Mark Twain:
"I didn't have time to make a small map, so I made a big one instead."
Alaskan Arctic

Northern Forest (New England)

Colorado Plateau

Central Idaho
New Mexico

Northern Rockies

North Cascades (Washington State)

California