Andy Woodruff  · Cartographer | Blog

My maps

Typographic maps of Boston and Chicago

30 September 2010 tagged axis maps, Boston, chicago, posters, typography with 13 comments

Well. There’s nothing like a 20-month side project. We at Axis Maps are presenting a couple of typographic maps—that is, maps made entirely of typography—that we’ve slowly been working on for a while. One is a map of the central Boston area, and the other (other two, actually) is a map of central Chicago. Let […]

Geodancing

20 July 2010 tagged driving, google maps, minimal maps, one-way streets with 3 comments

The other day Axis Mapper Dave was working with styled maps in the Google Maps API and made a brief styling mistake—all the small roads disappeared but their one-way arrows remained. It was actually kind of an interesting perspective on the street system, a stripped-down view of engineered traffic patterns or perhaps a measure of […]

Skyline maps

22 June 2010 tagged Boston, chicago, cities, flickr, new york, philadelphia, san francisco, seattle, skylines, toronto, vancouver with 11 comments

City skylines are one of my favorite types of scenic view. When planning to visit a new city, or even when looking to take some photos of a familiar city, I like to do some online scouting of good spots for a skyline view. I can recall several years ago browsing Google Earth, panning around […]

Boston squared

16 June 2010 tagged Boston, minimal maps with 16 comments

Geometry riddle: When is a square not a square? Answer: When it’s in New England. Above (click for greater bigness) with the stupid title is a series of minimal street maps I traced to show the varied actual shapes of a selection of so-called “squares” in the central Boston area. Urban spaces come in all […]

Paint by numbers

13 May 2010 tagged street numbers with 18 comments

Here’s something from the “Mildly Interesting” files. Address numbering schemes can vary a lot from place to place in the United States. In some cities the system is straightforward enough that by knowing a street number you can know approximately, if not exactly, the location of that address. In some other places… well, luckily addresses […]

The island of refreshment

2 May 2010 tagged Boston, water with Comments Off on The island of refreshment

In 2008 I moved from one notoriously left-wing town, Madison, Wisconsin, to another, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In reference to its politics, the former is sometimes called “76(ish) square miles surrounded by reality” and the latter is nicknamed the “People’s Republic of Cambridge.” But now Cambridge is more like “7 square miles surrounded by undrinkable water.” Until […]