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At Stamen we use OpenStreetMap data in most of the maps we make, including our Watercolor, Toner, andTerrain map tiles. OpenStreetMap is a rich and growing dataset that has been created and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world, and at Stamen we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without...

Beth and I were just in sunny Austin, Texas for another kind of South by Southwest: SxSW Eco 2013. It was a new crowd for me, which is always a blast. I saw some really interesting talks and projects, like the City as a Living Laboratory by New York artist Mary Miss, or the excellent...

We put together some experimental visualizations earlier this year for quantified self device hot shots Jawbone, showing the behavior of several hundred TED attendees during this year’s conference in Monterey. We worked with their data team to gather up the activity that each of the devices send back to the service, and after carefully combing...

Big data is a big deal, for sure, but small data can be beautiful too. A work of art, even! We’ve been exploring these themes with Wong Doody Crandall Wiener in a new data viz piece in the lobby of Cedars Sinai Medical Center West Hollywood. To house their most state-of-the-art research and outpatient care,...

Hear this: the billboard space at 14th and Valencia shall forever henceforth be known as Stamen Watercolor Billboard. Working with an anonymous benefactor, we generated what I think is the largest of our maps so far: 25 by 12 feet, big enough for our whole team to cavort along. It’s right down the street from...

Over the summer, Stamen was joined by Zoe Padgett, an intern studying a Masters of Fine Arts in Media Design Practices from the Art Center College of Design. We were delighted to have her join us, and all tickled by the work you see below. My first week at Stamen, Art Director George Oates gave...

I’m pleased to announce another product offering from Stamen; to satisfy your map object cravings, we’re partnering with the smarties at Dodocase to bring you custom wooden iPad cases, with maps from themaps.stamen.com project on the inside. For now, they’re available in two styles: a modified version of Toner called Toner-lines and Watercolor, and in...

Field Papers is a tool to help you create a multi-page atlas of anywhere in the world. The first version was launched in May of 2012, in partnership with Caerus Associates. In early 2013, we were approached by theU.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to extend Field Papers, and make it more robust. USAID wanted...

Stamen created maps.stamen.com to showcase our cartographic explorations. It’s also a place to stash our mapping experiments (Burning Map; Trees, Cabs & Crime). We recently added a new map: a three-dimensional map of contour lines that compose the surface of Mars. 1. Motivations I started looking for space-related data shortly after hearing news of the...

Good-looking maps used to be the domain of experts. That’s been changing quite a bit in the last few years, and it’s easier than ever now for developers to access mapping data (the recent State of the Map USconference was a great place to hear about this). Never content to leave well enough alone, we...