Back in December, we launched a new map for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The goal was to help people get to the parks and once there, around them, and to create a framework for Parks Conservancy staff, volunteers, and partners to add additional data and content as needed. At first, custom cartography wasn’t...
This post is a check on both our ambitions and our processes. The uses of data visualization are different according to whether the goal is to communicate a specific thought for a single moment, e.g. as a poster, or the goal is to provide a durable tool for social change. It should be mighty safe...
Today, The Atlantic Cities published their favorite maps of the year, and our work with Climate Central on Surging Seas tops the list: “the most frightening, important maps of the year come from Climate Central’s Surging Seas project, which offers an interactive map of all coastal areas of the Lower 48. In the discussion of...
When I first discovered Pinterest about two years ago, my heart exploded and my mind was blown in the best possible way. One simple interface allows me to visually browse all of the beautiful stuff I find on the internet and beyond, and to organize it how I please. It feels friendly & welcoming — a place...
Thing 1: “In September 2013, students in Webutuck High School art classes participated in a mapping workshop where they made maps of their lives — things they did, things they liked, things they didn’t like, and things they’d like to see. They drew the maps on Field Papers, which were scanned, edited, and turned into geotiffs and...
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...
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...