Tell Us About Yourself

My name is Antonia Blankenberg. I’m a Senior Consultant with Esri Ireland. I’ve always been interested in geography, but I only first came across GIS during my undergraduate degree. I took a module studying the geomorphology of Mars, during which I was introduced to ArcMap. I was so intrigued and inspired by it that I decided to further pursue the area, undertaking a Master’s degree in GIS which led me to where I am now. I’ve always had an eye for art, and I love painting, so I love making my maps look like pieces of art.

Tell us the story behind your map (what inspired you to make it, what did you learn while making it, or any other aspects of the map or its creation you would like people to know)

Projections can be the bane of a mapmakers existence, but this map shows them off in a fun way. I made a version of this map for the ‘Hexagons’ theme during the 30 Day Map Challenge in 2021 and restyled it for the calendar. The map is designed to show distortion of the hexagon tesselation across a few popular projections. I chose a muted colour palette to create a “textbook” feel.

Tell us about the tools, data, etc., you used to make the map. 

This map was made entirely in ArcGIS Pro, using fonts by Sarah Bell and a lovely paper texture by John Nelson.