{"id":3554,"date":"2023-12-14T11:53:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T16:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2023-12-14T11:53:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T16:53:48","slug":"yaozhuo-sun-map-of-the-week-city-maps-that-orient-you-better-than-google-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/2023\/12\/14\/yaozhuo-sun-map-of-the-week-city-maps-that-orient-you-better-than-google-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaozhuo Sun — Map of the Week: City Maps That Orient You Better Than Google Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a member of Generation Z, our inclination to rely on navigation tools like Google Maps and other satellite-based apps is ingrained in our travel habits. When we get to a new city, we use Google Maps on our phones to navigate to the destination we want; when we want to eat outside, we use Uber to get there, also with navigation by satellite map. While the precision and accuracy of these maps are unparalleled, offering realistic views and intricate details, the experience on our phone screens can feel as cold as the precision itself. The map above at first glance looks adorable or cartoon-like, as it is basically made of circles and text, but we can recognize this is the map of Manhattan. Why? Beyond the prominent titles, the distinctive city shape is the key to instant recognition. This prompts the question: What inspires this unique visual representation?<\/p>\n

In 2009 after college, Archie Archambault, the map creator, found himself getting lost. He noticed that despite their practical utility, Google Maps failed to provide him with a local\u2019s sense of neighborhoods, effective citywide navigation, or an accurate reflection of his personal perception regarding the time it took to travel from one point to another. \u201cI was super absorbed in the GPS,\u201d he told Slate. \u201cBut a Google map has a scientific feel. I wanted to communicate the idea of a city on paper.\u201d Then, he started to draw a circle with a cross hair in it, dividing it into quadrants. He started exploring streets and neighborhoods by all means of transportation possible, getting an on-the-ground feel for the urban landscape. That first sketch led him to create his first map of Portland and became the genesis of a quirky map-making process that he still uses today.<\/p>\n

Archie Archambault placed great emphasis on expressing the locals’ sense of community in his maps. \u201cI build a map in my head and then I talk with locals to see if my perception matches up with their experience of a city,\u201d Archambault said, adding that he tries to informally poll the widest range of people possible, including his favorite insider resource: real estate agents. \u201cThey are the ones who end up naming emerging neighborhoods,\u201d he says, \u201cand who really know the whole layout of a city.\u201d Besides talking with locals, to pursue what he calls the \u201cmental and cultural groundwork\u201d to make each map, he transports himself in different cities according to \u00a0the culture and landscape of each city. He drove as locals do in Atlanta. He would ride a bike in D.C. and New Orleans. He said it was the easiest way to autonomously get around and at his own quick pace, to create a mental road map. Also, to get a feel for how locals perceive a city like Washington, D.C., the designer often asks locals to sketch their own mental map. Archambault\u2019s maps are subjective and even familiar to people who really live in a city or certain area.<\/p>\n

Archambault crafts minimalist maps tailored to different cities, such as shaping D.C. as an imperfect diamond and Manhattan as a long oval. His distinctive style, marked by typography and circles, follows a centuries-old tradition of circular maps. The circle, chosen for its gentle impact on the eye, is considered the simplest and most beautiful shape. Archambault employs text decoratively, drawing inspiration from The New Yorker’s New Yorkistan cover, aiming for clear, concise, and simple maps that subjectively reflect reality through local neighborhood names.<\/p>\n

What I see through the map and the process of his design is that his maps are not cold construction displays, but subjective humanistic expressions with warmth. While we can navigate with maps on phone, it is just cold and superficial like that. Archambault \u2018s map is humanistic and warm, we can see the culture and local spite of a city behind the map. With such subjective purpose, we see the subjective influence on the design of the map. It feels like we human are really an organic part of the city. Actually I think such map can somehow improve the charisma of cities because it really represents the unique of the cities which attracts people to visit and even make commercial impact. The specific cultures uncovered by the map maker and locals can somehow attract more people to settle down and even make new cultures themselves when they feel they are also part of the cities throughout the maps. It all comes from such subjective design style. It really embraces citizens. It is such subjective features that make the map such attractive and useful for people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reference\uff1a<\/p>\n

Archambault, Archie. “Circular City Maps: Minimalist Designs Printed on a 19th Century Letterpress.” Slate, December 2013. https:\/\/slate.com\/human-interest\/2013\/12\/circular-city-maps-archie-archambault-designs-minimalist-city-maps-printed-on-a-19th-century-letterpress.html.<\/p>\n

Pinterest. “Beautiful Landscape Painting.” Pinterest, Accessed November 26, 2023, https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/45176802485938592\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a member of Generation Z, our inclination to rely on navigation tools like Google Maps and other satellite-based apps is ingrained in our travel habits. When we get to a new city, we use Google Maps on our phones … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6257,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maps-of-the-week"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}