The best map of the US you'll ever see...

[FLRoads]

CNN today has an article about what they say may be the best map of the U.S. that you will ever see (in their opinion). David Imus, a 35-year veteran cartographer in Oregon spent over 6000 hours creating a 3'X4' wall map of the U.S. in likeness to the National Geographic wall map. It won "Best in Show" by the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. The map was made using older cartographic methods.


David Imus' map on the left; National Geographic map on the right

The only real differences I noticed right off were the use of relief shading, the removal of some of the smaller towns that appear on the NG map and the use of Interstate shields with pointy bottoms. I am curious as to how he decided on that particular design of the interstate shield though.

Here is a link to the CNN article and to another article discussing the map:

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/01/05/imus-makes-greatest-map-united-states?hpt=hp_c2

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/01/the_best_american_wall_map_david_imus_the_essential_geography_of_the_united_states_of_america_.html

[agentsteel53]

for all his attention to detail, I wish he had taken a closer look at a US route marker before aping that Wisconsin state route shield that National Geographic seems to be so fond of.

[DTComposer]

I agree about the route markers. Some other things I noticed, comparing the maps above as well as the California excerpt at:

http://www.boredfeet.com/mappages/map9780981855127.php

-I notice that Springfield, OH and Muncie, IN (both urban areas population around 90-100K) get the yellow "urban" tint, but Salinas, Monterey, Visalia and Santa Cruz (all urban areas population over 125K) do not. Not sure what his criteria was for the tinting.

-The article also states that cities' font size was based on population. San Jose has a bigger/bolder font than San Francisco, which would make sense since it is bigger, but I wonder what his cut-off points are - they're both between 750K and one million; the cut-off would have to be 850,000 or 900,000. In fact, from what I can tell, the dividing points are:
0-10K
10-50K
50-200K
200-500K
500-850K?
over 850K?

I've tried to come up with a formula that would base city font size on not just city population, but also urban/metro population to come up with a reasonable compromise.

[hbelkins]

I have seen some old oil company maps (can't remember the cartographer) that used a similar US route marker that did not have the middle "point" on top.

[Quillz]

Those shields are pretty horrific.

However, the map itself is really beautiful, and the cartographer did a fantastic job.

[empirestate]

I knew the name looked familiar...I have his map of Alaska, which I picked up in a Sitka bookstore, and it is one of my favorites. It shows at least two things I've never seen on a reference map of the state: its boroughs, and its entire area at one scale within a single frame, no insets for the Aleutians or Panhandle.

I'd have to see the full US map to get a real opinion on it, but I too am a little bemused by the choice of funky shields, especially given his expressed concern for design...at best they give off an air of whimsy that seems a little unseemly for depicting highways, and at worst it's simply an inaccurate representation of a national symbol that could just as easily have been rendered accurately.

[vdeane]

I don't really like the color scheme myself and there's no denying that those route shields are horrible.  IMO the best map is MapWorks.

[nexus73]

Gousha had my favorite map style.  I sure wish they had stuck around.

Rick

[xonhulu]

Gousha had my favorite map style.  I sure wish they had stuck around.

I agree, I always thought Gousha was the best.