Tag: 2018 GeoHipster Calendar

Maps and mappers of the 2018 calendar: Kate Keeley

by GeoHipster Team, posted in Geohipsters

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: I always thought I was going to be a scientist and had a brief stint as researcher and field biologist. Then I decided I liked communicating science to the public more, and worked as an interpretive park ranger and zoo education specialist. And then I discovered GIS and the rest was history. With GIS, I found a tool that combined my technical side with my eye for design and an opportunity to communicate complex subjects in new and innovative ways.

A recent master’s graduate from the University of Michigan, I now work as a GIS consultant for an environmental consulting firm in Michigan and I couldn’t be happier. Say hi to @pokateo_ on Twitter (that’s po-kate-o like potato. Get it? I like potatoes)! Or mosey over to my website at https://kateberg.github.io/ to learn more about my journey.

Q: 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).

A: I stumbled across the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being reports and immediately thought of making a map using a scale of happy to sad faces (sort of inspired by recently reading John Nelson’s suggestion in his latest ArcGIS blog post to use Chernoff faces for symbology). A quick Google search of PNG faces led me immediately to a bunch of cutouts of celebrity faces and I knew that’s what I wanted to use. I found faces with a variety of different emotions, from smiling to meh to frowning to crying and played around with a scale that made sense to me.

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

A: I worked in ArcGIS Pro. I used my cubic tessellations I created for another project (also inspired by John Nelson. This time his Electo-Cubo-Grams) as the base (that was a whole other challenge; trying to fit all the states into a general US shape was quite difficult). With my base layers from that project, each state had its own point. Then, I uploaded the face PNGs as the point symbology for each state and went from there.

I was really excited by how it was shaping up, but I shared it with a couple of friends and they weren’t too keen on it. They said it [was] actually quite frightening:

(https://kateberg.github.io/img/Wellbeing/wellbeing1.png)

They said I should stop what I was doing and burn it with fire.

I was undeterred. Perhaps I was blind or a bit abstracted, but I still thought what I was doing was pretty cool.

I played with different ways to make the heads less creepy:

https://kateberg.github.io/img/Wellbeing/wellbeing2.png

https://kateberg.github.io/img/Wellbeing/wellbeing3.png

https://kateberg.github.io/img/Wellbeing/wellbeing4.png

https://kateberg.github.io/img/Wellbeing/wellbeing5.png

I noticed that the overall pattern of states’ well-being changed depending on the component (e.g. purpose, social, financial), so I wanted to find a way to include those patterns, without making the map look extra complicated (or creepy as it were). I found using the colored circles on the right to be a great way to provide a quick glance of the interesting patterns! Overall, I think the final result came out pretty neat and I’m very proud of it being selected for the GeoHipster Calendar!  You can read more at: https://kateberg.github.io/portfolio/wellbeing.html

 

Maps and mappers of the 2018 GeoHipster calendar: Topi Tjukanov, August

by GeoHipster Team, posted in Interviews

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: I’m a geospatial geek from Finland. I do this kind of visualization for fun and as a freelancing work. You can read more about me from this GeoHipster interview: http://geohipster.com/2018/04/16/topi-tjukanov-in-finnish-basemaps-forest-is-white/

Q: 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).

A: I originally saw the Roads to Rome project from moovel Lab and was really inspired by that. I wanted to recreate that with my own tools. I had already done a few similar maps before this, but this one was custom made for the GeoHipster calendar submissions! While making the map I learned a lot more about Python. Basically before venturing into this, my Python skills were almost non-existent, but this was a great way to learn as I had a clear goal in mind. Writing the simple script for the API calls was a small step for mankind, but a big step for me. I wanted to keep the style really simple and clean so I didn’t want to add anything else than the routes and graticules on the final map.

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

A: The data is from OpenStreetMap. Routing is done with the great GraphHopper open source routing engine. GPX routes were then stored into a single PostGIS table and visualized with QGIS. Graticules are from Natural Earth.

You can find a bit more info, links, and an animated version here: https://tjukanov.org/roadsofamerica/

 

Maps and mappers of the 2018 GeoHipster calendar — Vanessa Knoppke-Wetzel

by jonahadkins, posted in Geohipsters

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: I’m really passionate about data visualization, and am a huge advocate that everyone is capable of creating beautiful, well-designed, and user-friendly maps, graphics, and data viz (even if they say “they can’t” because they never learned). I sort of stumbled upon cartography – it never was my original plan, but I’m so very glad I did. My feelings about the importance of balancing design and analysis all began when I attended NACIS in Portland, OR, and a panel was discussing the importance of design in maps vs some that argued it wasn’t as needed anymore in many cases, because of advances in technology. I had no idea how much listening to those discussions would affect me, but ultimately I realized a trend in the talks I give, the research I enjoy (and research I did), and the products I enjoy exploring, all ultimately are related to sharing knowledge, breaking it down to shareable pieces, and exploring how to find new ways of visualizing things… on screens.


Q: 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).

A: All of the above really is a backdrop for why I made this map (although at the time I had not fully fleshed out and realized all of this). At the time, I was constantly frustrated with map design, and was always “waiting” to learn more about how to design maps to look a certain way, based on certain styles or aesthetics that had to be defined (like cubism, or impressionism). My mom is an artist, and I had spent so much of my life constantly surrounded by art, exploring art mediums (my mom always picked up new creative hobbies), and taking all the art classes I could. This, I think, is why I kept expecting there to be a book or class that explained what I was searching for, which ultimately was how to translate the aesthetic of maps off-screen to on-screen: what techniques did I need to learn and practice to learn how to do X? I got frustrated, and as a result, decided to create a map on-screen actually mimicking brushstrokes (I love painting). I should note here, one of my secondary frustrations was that neither Illustrator nor Photoshop could ever approximate the particular brush-strokes and looks I wanted them to. I knew there had to be products out there besides these “standard ones” that weren’t just CLONING a brush-look, but creating a better approximation of what happened. Corel Painter, as it turns out, was the solution – at least, one of them. Not only does it have a multitude of brush types, but it goes beyond brushes (sponges… pens… so many things). Additionally, there are different background textures that can be applied, and the different paper textures also are programmed to react differently to different paints, brushes, ‘wetness’ of paint, etc. Really fantastic. Anyway: this map was me exploring texture and paint. The topic is also near and dear to my heart – Madison, WI has so many beautiful places to run, so I wanted to show my favorite places. Finally, I always had admired the iconography of old maps, so I decided to draw some “detailed, but sketchy” icons for my favorite parts of the running routes.


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

A: I used my mental map for the creation – a very purposeful choice, as the world in our head bends differently than accurate data ;), Corel Painter 12, and a drawing tablet.

 

Maps and mappers of the 2018 GeoHipster calendar — Kurt Menke

by GeoHipster Team, posted in Geohipsters

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: I am the owner of a small geo consultancy Bird’s Eye View based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. My biggest focus areas are conservation, public health and training, but my clientele have become more and more diverse in recent years. I am an avid open source proponent and have authored two books on QGIS: Mastering QGIS and Discover QGIS. In the small amount of spare time I seem to have, I like working out, getting out into big wild spaces/mountains, playing board games while spinning some vinyl, raising chickens, and good coffee. I also love having the time to be creative and put together a nice map.

Q: 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).

A: This map was produced for a coalition working to protect the San Gabriel Mountains called San Gabriel Mountains Forever. The target audience was U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu’s staff and the general public. It shows a series of proposed protections: expansion of the existing San Gabriel National Monument, a new National Recreation Area, expansion of several existing wilderness areas along with 6 new wilderness proposals, and several new wild and scenic rivers. The goal was to create a map highlighting these proposals with a clean modern look.

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

A: This was created with the QGIS nightlies, which last fall was version 2.99. This gave me a chance to check out some of the new emerging features coming with version 3. The proposal data was digitized using QGIS. The Stamen Terrain basemap is being seen through a similarly colored State boundary layer employing some transparency and the multiply blending mode. Existing wilderness and proposals also employ the multiply blending mode. Wilderness areas were obtained from Wilderness.net and highways were sourced from CalTrans. Highways were styled as white lines so that they would fall to the background. They look better digitally than in print form…is a map ever done? Cities were shown simply as labels.

2018 GeoHipster Calendar is Now Available

by jonahadkins, posted in Geohipsters

We’re pleased to announce that the 2018 GeoHipster calendar is available to order! Thanks to all who submitted maps for the calendar.

If your map made it into the calendar, we will send you a complimentary copy (please email pbr@geohipster.com for details).

Note: We’re switching print-on-demand vendors this year on a trial basis. The good news is the calendar costs less this year! The bad news? Previewing the content requires Flash. (Say it with us now, “ew”!) But trust us, the maps included are just as funky, unique, artful, and hipster-ish as in years past. If you’re really curious, Kurt Menke gave us a preview of his submission in November. Besides, what other calendar can you buy that has PostGIS Day marked on it?

Many thanks to Jonah Adkins for the cover design and image processing, and Bill Dollins for organizing the effort on behalf of the GeoHipster Advisory Board. Also, special thanks to our guest judges from recent years for helping us out!

Next year we aim to have a new way to propose map submissions for the 2019 calendar all year round. But in the meantime, get your 2018 calendar now, and pick up one for a friend (or your boss) while you’re at it. Have a great holiday season!