prostheticknowledge:

Escape from Mercator

Post from Mapzen presents a collection of interactive maps exploring alternative forms of geographic representation (including one which is very reminiscent of a scene from the film Inception) :

Like most web mapping services, our Tangram library draws maps in the “Web Mercator” projection. This projection has its benefits, but it’s certainly quirky. Mercator projections are well-known for their distortion at high latitudes—this is because they place the north and south poles at positive and negative infinity, which means a Mercator map of the whole world would be infinitely tall.

… Though it is ubiquitous online (and historically useful to navigators), Mercator doesn’t get much love from the modern cartographer. And in general, Mercators are unsuited for cases when you want to compare the size or shape of anything that isn’t near the equator. So while Web Mercator is useful, we’ve been using Tangram to explore other options.

You can find out more and play with the maps at Mapzen here

design-is-fine: “ Walter Ballmer & Titti Campagnoli, artwork for Olivetti poster, 1971. Advertising the participation in an exhibition of office equipment in Switzerland. Source ”

design-is-fine:

Walter Ballmer & Titti Campagnoli, artwork for Olivetti poster, 1971. Advertising the participation in an exhibition of office equipment in Switzerland. Source

Artist Questions

Picasso: Do you remember your first word? What was it?
van Gogh: Would you rather become famous after death or famous in life but forgotten after death?
da Vinci: Do you have many talents or one thing you're really good at?
Monet: What do your parents want you to do for a living?
Dali: Do you have strange dreams?
Warhol: Have you ever had surgery? What for?
Magritte: Would you rather fall in love once and have it last forever (while wondering if there was something better) or have many relationships (but never settle)?
Titan: If someone could give you a title, what would it be?
Kahlo: Do you want to have children? Why or why not?
Renoir: What has influenced you most in regards of your character?
Rousseau: What is your main philosophy in life?
Klimt: If you have any; are you very close to your siblings?
Matisse: Does observing other people influence your style?
Kandinsky: How far would you travel in order to study your favorite subject?
Chagall: What 'style' or 'clique' do people typically associate you with?
O'Keeffe: What is your favorite flower?
Rockwell: Did you know from a young age what you wanted to do with your life?
Pollock: How do you define 'art'?
Donatello: Do you feel like you're stuck in someone's shadow?
Botticelli: What would you say your 'trademark' is? In either appearances or personality.
Dürer: Do you take a lot of selfies?
El Greco: Have you ever wished that you could grow a mustache?
Bernini: If you could work under a political official, who would you work under?