Maps On The Brain

A selection of recent publications with maps on the cover:

A book:

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain by George Lakoff

The author attempts to explain why a great number of Americans actually vote against their own interests.



Some magazines:





The cover of this issue of The New Yorker (June 23, 2008) features cover art, “Summer Job”, by Bruce McCall.

If you cannot make out the detail, it fancifully depicts bears checking in and out of the "Employees Entrance" at a National Park, while the tourist are reminded, "No picnicing in Buffalo Wallows."

If you look very closely, you can see that, yes indeed, there is a map! A "You Are Here" map of the park for the tourists.

This cover reminds me of the old Warner Brothers Cartoon where Ralph the wolf and Sam the sheepdog clock in, as buddies, before battling over the sheep.



“Subway Man”, by Roz Chast, graces the June 30 issue of The New Yorker. A stressed out commuter IS the transit map of Manhattan.

Finally, the June 21, 2008, issue of the New Scientist magazine features a very hot looking planet Earth, for a cover story on global warming.


#207

Plates and Babies

Two more examples of maps and globes in magazine cover design.

This issue of American Heritage is from last year. It makes clever use of old automobile license plates to create a map of the United States.

The current issue of Reason Magazine uses a globe.

Anytime a magazine talks about a "global" issue, they like to put a globe on the cover... but I like the combination of the baby and the globe. The article highlights the problem that many developed nations perceive, declining birth-rates. Yet in other parts of the world (China, India) there remain attempts to control population growth?

Didn't Paul Ehrlich predict a huge world-wide crash in the 1980s because of the population explosion?


#192

The Geography of Bliss

Another antidote for the Map of Misery...

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner.

"Weiner set out on a yearlong quest to find the world's unheralded happy places... he'd travel to countries like Iceland, Bhutan, Qatar, Holland, Switzerland, Thailand and India to try to figure out why residents tell positive psychology researchers that they're actually quite happy." -- Publishers Weekly

I'm happy that the cover designers used a map for the paper airplane.









Also available, in large type with an alternate cover!

Three Globes on Magazines

Three recent magazines using globes as part of the cover design:

	The Spectator April 12, 2008
	Strategic Finance April 2008
	The Economist March 29, 2008

Swarovski Globe

Milan Design Week 2008: Swarovski Crystal Palace



Via MocoLoco

Apple and Potatoe Worlds

Kevin Van Aelst's color photographs "include every day foods and objects: bread, doughnuts, crackers, candy, floor tile, sweaters, and lint. These simple materials are arranged into shapes and patterns inspired by formulas found in science and mathematics, such as fractal geometry, chaos theory, biology and chemistry."

And geography!

Apple Globe, 2007, Digital C-Print




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Discovering that crunchy map reminded me to pull out and scan this advertisement I saved from a restaurant industry magazine back in the 1990's.

McCain Foods Limited, is the world's largest producer of frozen french fries.

Sadly, neither of these works of art can be found in any museum. Hopefully they ended up on someone's plate...

On the Road to...?

It has not been my intention to turn this blog into a "Maps as Art" blog... but it certainly feels like it, lately. There have been so many good ones that have come my way...

I have been reading You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, edited by Katharine Harmon. This book consists of dozens of excellent examples of "maps as art". Many of them have been featured here and on other map blogs (such as Strange Maps). Buy the book, or see a large portion of it on Google Books. I would love to reproduce all of the images here, but that is more than a bit out-of-bounds. So I'll leave you with this colorful and entertaining painting by Howard Finster:

Howard Finster, All Roads One Road Headed the Same Way, 1978

Baptist preacher and renowned folk artist Howard Finster (1916-2001) devoted his life to art and his art to God... [Finster's map] generously offers many routes to a paradise that is detailed in its delights.

Folks who are not familiar with oustider art may not recognize the name Howard Finster, but music fans might recognize the cover art he did for the Talking Heads album, Little Creatures, which ironicaly, included a song titled "Road To Nowhere" AND a globe!

_______________________
Ms. Cartophiliac was an Art History major in college and completed her senior thesis on outsider artists. Thus, I have been introduced to the chaotic delights of outsider art. Our favoritest museum in the whole world is the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, where many examples of this art genre can be found.

Ms. Cartophiliac is the proud owner of this small Howard Finster sculpture. Unfortunately, we have been obliged to keep it safely stowed away in a closet. Our feline roommates are way too fond of knocking things off of shelves for the fun of it.

Atlas Madonna

The May 2008 Issue of Vanity Fair magazine features pop singer Madonna, holding a globe of the earth on her shoulders, for their annual "Green Issue". My first thought, upon seeing this image, was of Atlas, the Greek Titan, who bore the spheres of the heavens.

Joost Depuydt, at Maps & More, saw a different Titan (of the big screen)...

Foolish Pangea

Google Earth Blog has preserved the 2008 Google Earth April Fools Joke. "Well, it turns out there is an April Fools Joke in Google Earth today after all! If you turn on the "Geographic Web" layer and then zoom all the way out (38000+ miles away from Earth) the Earth's continents merge into the theoretical Pangea (the way the continents may have appeared hundreds of millions of years ago)."

Unfortunately, they only kept the joke up for one day. April 1. I'm glad someone saved it.

via The Map Room

10 Ideas That are Changing the World

Time Magazine once again treats us to a map as part of the cover design:



"10 Ideas That are Changing the World: More than money, more than politics, ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on. Here are a few you need to know about."

Political Cartography 2.0

The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet is hosting its annual Politics Online Conference this week in Washington, DC. Patrick Ottenhoff, publisher of TheElectoralMap.com, will be speaking on the Political Cartography 2.0 panel. He has already blogged about two of this topics:

Politics Online Conference: D.I.Y. Maps
Politics Online Conference: Cartograms


I'm looking forward to additional posts on his presentation, and the maps he will share.

Crossing the Rubicon

Earlier, I wrote about my experiences in the Diplomacy Hobby, as a gamer and a zine publisher. This t-shirt was given to me as a wedding present by a couple of my old Dip buddies, Scott and "Goz". I suppose I could wear it to a tournament and not need a conference map...

Back when I was publishing my Diplomacy zine, Crossing the Rubicon, my friend, Bill Williams, designed this logo for me. I share it here because, knowing my love of maps, he incorporated an antique globe into the design. Bill had a special color printer that could make t-shirt iron-on transfers. Unfortunately, we forgot to reverse the image... so we printed it again and put the mistake on the back of the shirt:



I am using the old zine name, and the logo Bill designed, for a new blog I started last month. Crossing the Rubicon is primarily my boardgaming log, but I may get around to other articles about boardgames, and reprinting my old zines.

In Praise of Slowness

In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré

"The author explores, in convincing and skillful prose, a quiet revolution known as 'the slow movement,' which is attempting to integrate the advances of the information age into a lifestyle that is marked by an 'inner slowness' that gives more depth to relationships with others and with oneself."

This sounds like a book I ought to read.

No time... No time...

Passport - Infinity Machine

While listening to the progressive rock Internet radio site, Aural Moon, this afternoon, I heard the track, "Contemplation", by the German prog-jazz fusion band, Passport, from their 1976 album, Infinity Machine. The music was pleasant, if a bit derivative (Europe's answer to The Weather Report?), but the album cover caught my eye.

See the World

This image accompanies the article, "What Would You Risk For A Better Life?" from PickTheBrain, "a website dedicated to self improvement with a focus on personal productivity, motivation, positive psychology, and self education."

The article itself is very interesting, discussing the risks of LASIK Eye Surgery, and the bigger questions about risks we take to possibly improve our lives. Of course, from a cartophiliac's perspective, the most interesting part of the article is the illustration. No risk there! A sweet use of maps as an element of design.

Thanks to Hunter for the heads up on this one.

Turtle World

From Something Awful:



I love this image. The first thing it made me think of was Terry Pratchett's Discworld...

Thanks to TIV for the head's up.

Peace on Earth

Three Christmas tree ornament globes from my collection:

UPDATE 12/18: I would not, however, waste good Bacardi to get this effect... (from Cartophilia, September 5, 2007)

Map Rugs for Home & Classroom

A few months back, I blogged about a relief map rug. Here's another map rug from World Maps Online:



These map rugs appear to be designed with the classroom in mind. In fact, the rug depicted above is actually a large game board for use with the STOPS Geography Trivia Game.

However, I think this Earthworks Rug would make a nice addition to a family room. I would enjoy having it in my home.

The Elephant and the Dragon

This evening I was Christmas shopping at Borders and the cover of this book jumped right out at me. The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us by Robyn Meredith.

It is not a map of anything... however, the image of an elephant and a dragon create the impression of continents on a globe. A clever use of cartographic imagery.

Time Magazine goes double with maps

How did I miss this one in November?

The November 26, 2007, issue of Time Magazine sports a spoof of a famous Norman Rockwell self-portrait:



In addition, the cover of their Europe/Asia/South Pacific edition also has fun with a map. Global Corporation? Put the globe on your brief case.

Maps on Magazine Covers

An assortment of maps on magazine covers from my collection:

If you want to demonstrate your "global reach"... put a globe on your cover...











While I suppose it is not suprising to find a map on the cover of the Journal of Geography... I particularly liked this "melting Earth" image... (see global warming).



If you want to tell your readers "we're covering the news" put a map on the cover:



Map in an editorial cartoon on a cover:



Like the recent Time magazine cover, here is a map on the body to imply how "widespread" a disease can be:

The Die is Cast!

I don't recall if this is a new logo for them or not... but I recently discovered the logo on the Boardgame News website:

More about maps in boardgames coming soon. But this one is too good to pass up. Thanks, BGN!

Maps in Advertising

As I mentioned in my first post, finding this ad in a magazine really caught my eye:



Obviously, it is not a literal "road map", but the metaphor of a road map is that the customers of this Lexis-Nexis product will be able to find their way through complex information sources, without getting lost. Anyone who has ever used a road map to navigate through unknown territory should be able to relate to this ad, especially if you're the type that doesn't like to ask for directions...

When I saw this ad (1991?) I was not so familiar with the Lexis-Nexis corporation, or Ohio geography. So, I didn't appreciate at the time that they were using an Ohio road map. The floppy disk map includes Dayton where their U.S. corporate headquarters are located.


A map of the world, or a globe, are other common themes for advertising:

I guess it wouldn't be Christmas without a Bacardi drink



Obviously the advertisers are not using the globe as a way to indicate which planet they are on...

CS First Boston is rather transparent in their intentions

Perhaps they want to indicate their "global presence"...

Of course, MCI is now part of Verizon

or that their product is useful to everyone on the planet...

Does mean that CIBA is part of the Flat Earth Society?
and sometimes, it's just silly.

An Everlasting Piece, 2000, directed by Barry Levinson. Has anyone ever seen this film?