Awesome Maps

Meridian Maps started out making laser-cut wooden maps that come framed. Now they’re offering the maps as wall-mounted pieces that stick out 0.5″ from the wall. They are also working on a web-based program that will let you customize the map you want to order.

Services like Google Maps have way more influence on the world than you might think. Since people trust these maps, any information that ends up on them can become adopted as fact, like the names of areas which didn’t exist five minutes ago. Half as Interesting explains.

While we wish that MetaBallStudios had included The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. 3’s world maps for comparison, we still enjoyed watching this 2016 video which shows the relative sizes of world maps from video games from GTA III to Minecraft.

We’ve all gotten so used to seeing maps of the world in cylindrical and pseudo-cylindrical projections, that our sense of where things are placed and their sizes is pretty distorted compared to reality. RealLifeLore explains many misperceptions of our nation’s geography.

Motion artist Páraic Mc Gloughlin compiled a collection of thousands of satellite images captured by Google Earth, transforming the top-down view of Earth’s landscapes, roads, and structures into a dizzying work of modern art.

We love the idea of the TravelScratcher, a 24″ x 36″ wall map that features a gorgeous gold scratch-off foil layer. Scratch off the areas you’ve visited to reveal bold pops of color and remind yourself that there are many more places out there to explore. (Thanks Chris!)

JACE.design offers drinkware, phone cases, posters and more that you can customize with a print of your desired location or coordinates. For the cases, bags and posters, you can zoom in on or out of the location and pick from a handful of drawing styles.

Etsy store OriginArtwork specializes in beautiful layered wooden maps. Most of their products are based on real locations, but they do have the occasional fictional subject, such as this detailed map of the world of Game of Thrones. It’s available in four sizes.

Instead of spending months traveling the globe for real, Matteo Archondis used a combination of the Maps API, editing, and stabilization to combine over 3300 individual Google Earth screenshots to take us on a whirlwind tour of some of the world’s greatest sights.

“The surface of a sphere cannot be represented as a plane without some form of distortion.” That pretty much sums up the fact that there’s really no way to accurately represent the earth in flat maps, as Vox explains. After you stop saying “Winkel Tripel,” go play with this.

Lonely Planet’s free Guides app for iOS and Android comes with offline maps, location-aware functions, curated sights and handy tips. It also lets you bookmark places. It covers 38 cities, with more to come soon.

Matthew Stevenson used real subway lines to make alternate world map prints for six NES games: Metroid, Maniac Mansion, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and the first two Zelda games. He’s also selling them as high res digital files.

Planning a trip to Westeros? Redditor selvag depicted the fictional continent from A Song of Ice and Fire in the style of Google Maps. The poster is available in three sizes. OK Google, what’s the best sushi place in The North?

So you loved Karen O’Leary’s intricate handmade map but can’t afford it? CutMaps has the next best thing – a series of laser-cut maps from sheets of steel, EVA foam, or plywood. While the stainless maps are small, they’re a total bargain.

Stephen Von Worley’s Crayon the Grids is a series of beautiful interactive maps of various major cities with the streets and roads colored according to their orientation. London and Chicago prove to be extreme opposites.

(SPOILERS) Graphic designer Michael Tyznik’s transit maps for A Song of Ice and Fire‘s Westeros, as well as the whole Known World. The destinations, connections and status of certain lines allude to events in the series.

Google took its Street View cars to the Top Gear test track in the UK. Just head to Google Maps and you can take a tour of the famous track, with The Stig harassing escorting you until you go across the line.

Lamborghini allowed Google Street View into its museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. The 360º tour lets you check out Lambo’s supercars, one-off models, race cars and more. You can even zoom in to the interior of some of the cars.

UK design shop Wallpapered.com creates custom wall art using upscaled maps of your specific location of interest. They’ll design and ship internationally, and also offer all sorts of other cool wall coverings.

Visit one of the world’s most biodiverse locales thanks to Google Street View’s newly-released 360-degree POV maps and footage of the Galapagos Islands. View the amazing animals and vistas captured during their journey here.

A brief profile about Peter Bellerby and his company Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, preserving the art of handcrafting globes – taking commissions for movies, artists and other high profile clients. Documentary by Cabnine.

Artist Rachel Evans creates maps of the world using a unique method. She uses hundreds of spiral shapes created with a Spirograph, then lays them out into collages representing each continent. Prints available here.

If you liked Anne Stauche’s concept for a zoomable map – now called map² – check out her Kickstarter fundraiser. She’s designed maps for London, Berlin and New York, with more cities to come.

Rockstar Games has uploaded hi-res maps from Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas, a gift to those who bought the digital versions of the games (and anyone looking for cool GTA posters).

Measuring about 2 x 3 ft, the GeoChron makes it easy to tell the time in any place in the world. It’s available in different frames and two models, one that’s hung and one that flush-mounts to the wall.

Google leverages its Maps and Street View technologies to let you visit over 130 wonders of the world, ranging from the Tower of Pisa to Pompeii to in between the stones at Stonehenge.