Filed under: Design, etc, News & Trends
Inspirations often stem from unexpected places and things. Here, geography gets our design gears turning.Most of us had our first geography lesson back in grade school. You may not remember it, but perhaps you recall the curiosity it piqued. Maybe you ran your finger along a map in your social studies textbook and asked: What does it look like there? It it hot or cold? What are the people like? When the teacher pulled down a flat world map, many students stared -- likely because, in an instant, they realized that the world is much bigger than they'd all imagined.
There is something about maps that get us going. And we couldn't be happier that many designers feel the same -- creating goods that bring this eye-opening inspiration to the home.
Eight black frames from Spicher and Company display this map of Venice, making art within art. Photo: Spicher and Company
Many of us still enjoy looking at (or framing) antique maps, and who isn't a little obsessed with Google Earth or their GPS? Maps don't only inspire us, they help get us from one place to the next. They literally and figuratively transport us.
"When I was a kid, I pored over issues of National Geographic looking at their maps," says Emily Fischer of Haptic Lab. Maps, she says, are never just about a place -- they're about politics, history and social studies. And that makes them particularly attractive in home decor. They can add texture and color and even inspire the senses. They make you feel something.
If you can't be in your favorite place in the world, Haptic Labs can stitch a map of it on a quilt so that you can curl up in your preferred destination. Washington, DC, shown above. Photo: Haptic Lab
Fischer plays into this nostalgia in her hand-stitched quilts (shown above), featuring maps of particular U.S. cities, including streets and landmarks. She'll even customize a map based on your childhood town or a specific swath stretching from, say, Union Square to Times Square in Manhattan, for example.
But there are a number of ways to incorporate witty lessons in cartography into your decor. Here are a few of our faves.
Photo: Michele Verian, I Want One of Those
The measure of a good cartographer? Attention to minute details. The design is in the details of this product too. Don't just place any old globe in the study, use your imagination and fill in your own demarcation lines on this chalkboard globe, $450.
Forget hanging up a map and sticking push pins into all of the places that you've been. With My Scratch Map, you scratch off the areas as you visit, and keep a visual diary of your adventures.
Photo: Kate Mathis
A clever take on the classic postcard. Mail a Mapnote ($4 each) featuring various city maps with your handwritten regards on the reverse.
Photo: pizzolorusso.com
Step on it, wet it or twist it, you can't destruct Crumpled City Maps printed on Tyvek. Crumpling conveniently into a tiny pouch, it's the perfect material to repurpose into placemats as souvenirs back home.
Photo: Domino magazine
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