Minimalist City Maps with a Twist
December 14, 2018 8:36 AM Subscribe
Every city has a defining feature that acts as a cultural shorthand for those in the know. Peter Gorman is the designer behind Barely Maps, a series of illustrated maps that turn these design features into wonderfully opaque visual riddles.
And here's the link to his website with all his maps: Barely Maps
And here's the link to his website with all his maps: Barely Maps
I’d seen the “intersections of Seattle” image floating around a while ago and it is both funny and painfully accurate.
posted by silby at 8:48 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by silby at 8:48 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seattle, distilled into a traffic jam? Appropriate but overall insulting.
posted by FGR at 8:49 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by FGR at 8:49 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
As someone whose primary experience of Boston involves driving through it on the way to somewhere else with a Google Maps display on my dash, what would have been most recognizable to me is a tangled mass of red and yellow lines looking roughly like a half-ruined spiderweb. Orderly rectangles convey nothing to me.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:56 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:56 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I feel like I need an explainer for every single one of these. :(
posted by ragtag at 9:11 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by ragtag at 9:11 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I’d seen the “intersections of Seattle” image floating around a while ago and it is both funny and painfully accurate.
I was actually a little disappointed to see that other cities than Pittsburgh got the "Intersections of _________" treatment because seriously, ours are the worst, I will fight you.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:14 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I was actually a little disappointed to see that other cities than Pittsburgh got the "Intersections of _________" treatment because seriously, ours are the worst, I will fight you.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:14 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
The "traffic jam" for Seattle isn't; it's the Interbay rail yard.
posted by wanderingmind at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by wanderingmind at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's in Amherst and Cheektowaga, a few blocks away from the city limits, but it's a shame the intersections of Buffalo map doesn't include the double-roundabout at Harlem, Kensington, and Wehrle. It's my immediate-neighborhood shopping hell!
*The Tops is really small for a supermarket. We call it The Crumbum Store because it used to be a Jubilee that was dubiously sanitary and where you had to double-check the expiry dates on *EVERYTHING*.
*The Wehrle Restaurant does decent gyros
*Hunan Wok is perfectly good Americanized Chinese takeaway
*Up Kensington, the San Marco is legit really rilly good
*Bob and John's is solid pizza
*Snyder B&G is divey but does pretty good wings
*Someone drove into the Walgreens once, presumably while high
*One of the things in between Vin-Chet and Kumiko a smidge up Kensington used to be a liquor store then a drunk person drove into it and [clouseau] not anymore [/clouseau]
*Just past the next roundabout to the south on Harlem is Tony's Pizza, which we've never used, but which has a sign painted on it reading "Taco's" so I always wonder whether Tony sold it to Taco or t'other way 'round. Also we have a local chain called Just Pizza which I've always assumed used to compete with Tyrannical Pizza.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
*The Tops is really small for a supermarket. We call it The Crumbum Store because it used to be a Jubilee that was dubiously sanitary and where you had to double-check the expiry dates on *EVERYTHING*.
*The Wehrle Restaurant does decent gyros
*Hunan Wok is perfectly good Americanized Chinese takeaway
*Up Kensington, the San Marco is legit really rilly good
*Bob and John's is solid pizza
*Snyder B&G is divey but does pretty good wings
*Someone drove into the Walgreens once, presumably while high
*One of the things in between Vin-Chet and Kumiko a smidge up Kensington used to be a liquor store then a drunk person drove into it and [clouseau] not anymore [/clouseau]
*Just past the next roundabout to the south on Harlem is Tony's Pizza, which we've never used, but which has a sign painted on it reading "Taco's" so I always wonder whether Tony sold it to Taco or t'other way 'round. Also we have a local chain called Just Pizza which I've always assumed used to compete with Tyrannical Pizza.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
I mean it's like the designer looked at Boston, gave out a quiet, knuckle-biting sob, and then started desperately searching for, "Rectangles, just show me some rectangles, anywhere, please God just a few little rectangles and I will get through this."
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:20 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:20 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I feel like I need an explainer for every single one of these. :(
They are designed to be unintelligible except to Those in the Know, who will mostly be driven into quibbling conniptions.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:22 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
They are designed to be unintelligible except to Those in the Know, who will mostly be driven into quibbling conniptions.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:22 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I know these are street-level intersections, not highways, but I feel like not including the I-271/I-480/US-422 interchange on the Cleveland map was a real missed opportunity.
posted by muchomas at 9:35 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by muchomas at 9:35 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Pacific Coast Highway map looks like bacon.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:38 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:38 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Jubilee that was dubiously sanitary
...but you repeat yourself
Also outside city limits but worth bringing up in any discussion of hellish WNY intersections: the Southwestern/Orchard Park/Lake Ave clusterfuck (honorable mention: McKinley/Southwestern/Big Tree Rd. Bad but in a different way than it was before!).
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:51 AM on December 14, 2018
...but you repeat yourself
Also outside city limits but worth bringing up in any discussion of hellish WNY intersections: the Southwestern/Orchard Park/Lake Ave clusterfuck (honorable mention: McKinley/Southwestern/Big Tree Rd. Bad but in a different way than it was before!).
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:51 AM on December 14, 2018
The Post Alley one is an homage to the gum wall there, the Interbay is indeed the train yard, I am not sure I am getting the Alki Beach one.
I love the San Juans and the constellations represent the biggest population centers in the states.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:54 AM on December 14, 2018
I love the San Juans and the constellations represent the biggest population centers in the states.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:54 AM on December 14, 2018
These are neat but I'm not sure "the one area of Boston where the streets aren't an absolute total clusterfuck of ancient cow paths" is really the defining feature of Boston.
As someone whose primary experience of Boston involves driving through it on the way to somewhere else with a Google Maps display on my dash, what would have been most recognizable to me is a tangled mass of red and yellow lines looking roughly like a half-ruined spiderweb. Orderly rectangles convey nothing to me.
I think the critiques of the Back Bay map are a little unfair -- it's prominently labeled "Back Bay," not just "Boston," and the distinctive feature of the Back Bay in the Boston context is the fact that it's so rigidly gridded (and with the green ribbon of Commonwealth Avenue down the middle).
Plus, the "each city has a defining feature" language is to be found nowhere on the original website. All the artist says is "I designed some graphic maps inspired by the places I visited" and that poster of the Back Bay is certainly inspired by the actual Back Bay.
posted by andrewesque at 10:35 AM on December 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
As someone whose primary experience of Boston involves driving through it on the way to somewhere else with a Google Maps display on my dash, what would have been most recognizable to me is a tangled mass of red and yellow lines looking roughly like a half-ruined spiderweb. Orderly rectangles convey nothing to me.
I think the critiques of the Back Bay map are a little unfair -- it's prominently labeled "Back Bay," not just "Boston," and the distinctive feature of the Back Bay in the Boston context is the fact that it's so rigidly gridded (and with the green ribbon of Commonwealth Avenue down the middle).
Plus, the "each city has a defining feature" language is to be found nowhere on the original website. All the artist says is "I designed some graphic maps inspired by the places I visited" and that poster of the Back Bay is certainly inspired by the actual Back Bay.
posted by andrewesque at 10:35 AM on December 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
The Alki Beach one is just oriented in the same direction as the beach. It's northwest-facing.
posted by fnerg at 10:49 AM on December 14, 2018
posted by fnerg at 10:49 AM on December 14, 2018
Fair point, andrewesque. And as I said, I like these maps. I wasn't really criticizing them or the artist, and, you're right, it's a good representation of Back Bay. Really though the only time anyone in Boston is thinking about rectangles is when they're looking for something big with which they can save their parking space in winter.
posted by bondcliff at 10:58 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by bondcliff at 10:58 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
If you really wanted to represent Boston as a whole, I'd suggest one of those octopus intersections except all the "arms" just curve back around onto themselves in cloverleaf patterns.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:10 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by tobascodagama at 11:10 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Awww, I was just having a bit o' fun. I don't really deal with the Back Bay very much, but I'll take even the thinnest excuse to complain about Boston traffic.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:13 AM on December 14, 2018
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:13 AM on December 14, 2018
I've lived in Boston, Seattle, and New York, and the Manhattan one is the only one that makes sense to me.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2018
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2018
The Savannah one is fun, since it's theoretically still a map and not a graphic design challenge like most of the others. It's just a map with every single feature except one stripped out, and it's a feature anyone familiar with Savannah will recognize. It reminds me of a Chicago shirt I saw that has the cardinal directions but replaces "East" with "Lake." A cartographic in-joke.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:53 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:53 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Sorry for responding to the same comment twice but when given the opportunity to talk about Buffalo I cannot resist:
*Someone drove into the Walgreens once, presumably while high
*One of the things in between Vin-Chet and Kumiko a smidge up Kensington used to be a liquor store then a drunk person drove into it and [clouseau] not anymore [/clouseau]
GCU Sweet and Full of Grace, sounds like you are well aware of this, but for anyone who isn't in the know, Buffalo is the world capital of drivers crashing into buildings. The linked map is sadly broken, but if the data is still floating around available somewhere that'd be an excellent minimalist map.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 11:56 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
*Someone drove into the Walgreens once, presumably while high
*One of the things in between Vin-Chet and Kumiko a smidge up Kensington used to be a liquor store then a drunk person drove into it and [clouseau] not anymore [/clouseau]
GCU Sweet and Full of Grace, sounds like you are well aware of this, but for anyone who isn't in the know, Buffalo is the world capital of drivers crashing into buildings. The linked map is sadly broken, but if the data is still floating around available somewhere that'd be an excellent minimalist map.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 11:56 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
The map worked for me.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:59 PM on December 14, 2018
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:59 PM on December 14, 2018
The Pacific Coast Highway map looks like bacon.
It doesn't work for me and I've spent a large portion of my like a stone's throw from either PCH or its "big brother freeway" US101. It doesn't reflect the parts where the coast AND the highway turn mostly east-west or the highway meanders a few more miles from the coast (with a large geological feature inbetween). If PCH is a strip of bacon, it's very unevenly cooked.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:11 PM on December 14, 2018
It doesn't work for me and I've spent a large portion of my like a stone's throw from either PCH or its "big brother freeway" US101. It doesn't reflect the parts where the coast AND the highway turn mostly east-west or the highway meanders a few more miles from the coast (with a large geological feature inbetween). If PCH is a strip of bacon, it's very unevenly cooked.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:11 PM on December 14, 2018
They're pretty and interesting graphics, but.. I guess I just don't get it, and I've been to many of these places.
posted by yoga at 6:06 PM on December 14, 2018
posted by yoga at 6:06 PM on December 14, 2018
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posted by bondcliff at 8:43 AM on December 14, 2018 [23 favorites]