Blog

Volume VII Finalists

Greetings! We are thrilled to reveal the final selection of maps slated for inclusion in the Atlas of Design, Volume VII! Once again, we were overwhelmed with the quantity and caliber of the maps that were submitted from all over...

Volume VII Progress Update (Submissions and Judging)

A quick update on Volume 7 of the Atlas of Design: Our Call for Submissions ended on January 21, 2024, and we received just over 200 individual maps from 150+ different authors. These numbers slightly outpaced Volume 6 (187 total)...

Volume VII Submissions Open

Hello map enthusiasts, We wanted to remind everyone that we are accepting submissions for Volume VII of the Atlas of Design through January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PST. Don’t wait, submit soon! The Atlas is meant to be a global...

Atlas of Design Profitability Statement

Does the Atlas of Design profit from contributors? The Atlas of Design is published by the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS), a not-for-profit professional organization for mapmakers and people who love maps. Both the Atlas and NACIS are entirely...

2023 Reprints and Team Updates

Hello map lovers! We have a couple of exciting updates to share with you. Have you been waiting to complete your Atlas of Design collection? Well, the time has come—we’ll be reprinting Volume 1 and Volume 4 this summer. Even...

A Look Inside — David Nuttall's Kjempsavor Ayars

Join us again as the editorial team and some of our guest judges take a deeper look at a few of the maps featured in the Atlas of Design Volume 6. In these segments, we offer personal opinions about what...

Printing the Atlas (2022 edition)

I started in cartography after doing the kind of basic graphic design work where I talked a lot with people who ran printing presses. Learned among other things what make life easier for them so I would get closer the...

A Look Inside — Bathymetric Visualizations

Join us as the editorial team and some of our guest judges take a deeper look at a few of the maps featured in the Atlas of Design Volume 6. In these segments, we offer personal opinions about what makes...

A Look Inside — Le Monde’s Thirty Years of Tension and Conflict

Join us as the editorial team and some of our guest judges take a deeper look at a few of the maps featured in the Atlas of Design Volume 6. In these segments, we offer personal opinions about what makes...

Volume VI Finalists

Greetings! We are excited to announce the final selection of maps set to be featured in the Atlas of Design, Volume VI! As with past volumes, the amazing number and quality of maps you sent us made it a difficult...

Volume VI Submissions Closed

Hello map lovers, We wanted to give you all a quick update on the status of Volume VI and our expected timeline moving forward. Our call for submissions closed on January 31 and we are absolutely thrilled with the incredible...

Volume VI Submission Extension

Hello map enthusiasts, We wanted to let everyone know that we are still accepting submissions for Volume VI of the Atlas of Design and are hoping that we get a chance to see your work. And because the times are...

Volume VI

Hello map lovers! We’re in the initial stages of planning the Atlas of Design Volume 6… and we have a new “we” to pull it together. To introduce ourselves: Nat Case: I’m continuing as editor from volume 5 (being the...

Updates for 2021

Hello, this is Caroline, one of the Atlas of Design editors. I want to give an update on the Atlas of Design project and team looking into 2021 and beyond. Project status updates We sent Volume 5 of the Atlas...

Volume 5 is shipping

This morning we shipped out the first copies of the Atlas of Design Volume 5! We are very excited to be sending this beautiful book out into the world. Visit our web store to place your order.

Pre-order Volume 5

We are thrilled to announce that pre-orders for the fifth volume of the Atlas of Design are open! Visit our web store to place your pre-order and make sure you can savor all the beautiful, interesting, and creative maps that...

Volume 5 Finalists Announcement

We had over 450 total entries for this year’s atlas, which is more than any previous volume! After a long process of deliberation, we have selected 31 maps to be featured in the 2020 edition of the atlas. In alphabetical...

Volume 5 submissions are closed

Submissions for Volume 5 of the Atlas of Design are closed, and we have over 450 entries. We are amazed by this response! We are now beginning to sort through the entries, preparing to turn them over to our panel...

Volume 5 is in the works

We are now beginning work on the fifth volume of the Atlas of Design! We plan to release Volume 5 for sale in the fall of 2020. New editors Volume 4 editor Caroline Rose will continue with Volume 5. She...

Volume 4 Released

It has been a few weeks since the initial release of the 2018 Atlas of Design at the annual North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) conference in Norfolk, Virginia. Here are a few photos of the book (ooh, aah, nice)!...

Volume 4 is almost here

Volume 4 is almost here! The books are currently being sewn and cased-in at the bindery, and should be finished and returned to the press in the next week or two. The first available books will ship out to our...

Pre-orders Update & FAQ

As we are finishing the commentary text, composing the layout, preparing files for the press, and giving interviews with several media outlets, the pre-orders are rolling in! Pre-orders On August 14, pre-orders nearly doubled in one day! Pre-orders skyrocketed when...

2018 Finalists

We had over 300 total entries for this year’s atlas, which is more than any previous volume! With only 32 maps featured in the book, selecting the finalists has not been easy. After a long process of deliberation, we have...

April Update

Map selection and pre-orders are in the works! We know that the entrants are anxious to know whether their maps will be featured in Volume 4. We are in the process of determining the finalists. There are so many wonderful...

Volume 4 submissions are closed

Submissions for Volume 4 of the Atlas of Design are now closed. We have over 300 entries! That’s more than we’ve received for any previous volume. A huge thanks goes out to all who shared our call for participation, whether...

Volume 4 submissions are due Feb 4

We are just two weeks away from the final deadline to submit your maps to the 2018 Atlas of Design! Finish up those new projects, or get together an already finished piece and send them our way! Submissions will be...

Accepting submissions for Volume 4

We are currently accepting map submissions for Volume 4, the 2018 Edition of the Atlas of Design! Submissions will be accepted until February 4, 2018. To review the submission guidelines and to enter your work, please visit the submission page...

Volume IV

We are excited to announce that we are beginning to ramp up production for Volume IV of the Atlas of Design, which will be released in October 2018. Our new editors for Volume IV are Alethea Steingisser, Lauren Tierney, and...

Holiday special & the return of Volume 2

Holiday shoppers, listen up! Volume 2 is back in stock, and now you can order both Volume 3 and 2 for a discounted price. Use the discount code “MAPPYHOLIDAYS” to get a $20 discount on your copy of Volume 2.*...

Pre-order Volume 3!

The Atlas of Design Volume 3 is now available for pre-order! Find yourself holding this 98 page collection featuring 32 beautiful maps designed by cartographers all around the world. Each map comes with a description written by the author. Pre-order...

Sales temporarily on hold w/ new fulfillment partner

We are excited to announce we will be changing fulfillment partners. East View Map Link will be taking over all of our fulfillment needs, including shipping and handling, as well as warehousing. We’re excited to be working with a company...

Materials & The American Printing Co.

While we coordinate with our finalists and begin organizing the maps into their final arrangement we are working hard with our publisher to get quotes and materials finalized. The American Printing Co. out of Madison, Wisconsin has been our trusty...

2016 Judging is Complete

After opening our third call for submissions in January this year, we and the judging committee reviewed nearly 250 maps. We put them side-by-side and analyzed each and every one, seaking out those maps that shined in aesthetic, art appeal,...

2016 Submission deadline extended!

The deadline for the 2016 submissions has been extended until the end of Friday, March 3rd! We have seen a lot of submissions thus far, and want to make sure you have a little bit of extra time for those...

2016 Call for Submissions!

Greetings cartographers! Four years have passed since the original call to be a part of the Atlas of Design, and we couldn’t be more happy about the quality of maps coming through our organization. We have been hard at work...

2015 Team Updates

Atlas of Design editors serve for exactly two volumes. As we reach the end of Volume II, we are looking at a major transition of the team in the upcoming months. Daniel Huffman, one of the founders of the Atlas...

A Look Inside: National Geographic's March to Gettysburg

Once again, the editorial team invites you to join us as we take a deeper look at some of the maps featured in the Atlas. In these semi-transcripts of our informal conversations, we offer personal opinions about what makes each map...

A Look Inside Barry Richard's Find A Room

Once again, the editorial team invites you to join us as we take a deeper look at some of the maps featured in the Atlas. In these semi-transcripts of our informal conversations, we offer personal opinions about what makes each map...

A Look Inside — Jake Coolidge's Columbia River Watershed

Join us as the editorial team takes a deeper look at some of the maps featured in the Atlas. In these informal conversations, we offer personal opinions about what makes each map interesting. We do not speak for the author, nor are...

The Judging Process

Now that we’ve wrapped up the work of getting the second Atlas of Design off the ground, we wanted to take a minute to explain how our final selections were chosen. We received almost 300 entries, and it was no easy...

The Judging Process

Congratulations to our Honorable Mentions

While the Atlas of Design features 32 top-quality examples of modern cartography, we received many more excellent works which did not make it into the final book. We chose to recognize the quality of these maps by naming them Honorable...

Volume 2 and Sneak Peak

Photos by Caroline Rose

2014 Atlas Available for Pre-Order

Ladies and Gentlemen, We’re excited to announce that the 2014 Atlas of Design is now available for pre-order! We’ll be shipping in October, but you should reserve your copy now to make sure we print enough for everyone! Don’t miss your...

The Long Proof

We printed off a quick proof at the University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab, so we could do one of the last rounds of editing before we send files to the press. It’s about 40 feet long! It’s amazing how much...

Congratulations to Our Finalists

We recently finished the challenging task of selecting the maps to be printed in the 2014 Atlas of Design. The upcoming months will be a busy and exciting time, as we’ll be assembling the final contents of the Atlas and...

Onward to Judging

The Call for Submissions for the 2014 edition of the Atlas of Design ended last week. In total, we received nearly 300 submissions, handily outpacing the number received for the first Atlas. The diversity and quality of the maps submitted...

2014 Call for Submissions

Friends of the Atlas, We’re very excited to release the Call for Submissions for the 2014 edition of the Atlas of Design! We want to build on the success of the 2012 edition and produce an even better volume the...

Photos of Volume I

As part of our website redesign, our colleague Caroline Rose took some really great photographs of Volume I. They’re wonderful, but we don’t have room on the main page to show all of them, so we wanted to share a...

Updated Website and Upcoming CFP

Friendly mappers, We’re excited to announce the release of our new website (on our new website)! Much has been simmering since the first release of the Atlas of Design in October 2012. As you may be aware, our editorial team has...

Atlas of Design at Greenville

The Atlas of Design will be available for purchase at the NACIS 2013 Annual Meeting in Greenville, SC! To make sure we don’t sell out before you have a chance to grab a copy, send an email to [email protected] with your name and the number...

Transitions

Friends of the Atlas, As preparations get under way for the 2014 edition of our project, we wanted to let you know that we’ve had some staffing changes here at AoD headquarters: Tim Wallace has decided to step away from...

Translators Sought

Fellow map enthusiasts, the Atlas of Design needs your help! We’re looking for volunteer translators to help take our project to the next level, putting it squarely in front of a global audience. The 2012 edition of the Atlas of...

Back in Print

Back by popular demand, a second printing of the Atlas of Design is now available for purchase. Order yours today. And tell everyone you know.

Huffington Post Preview

We’re honored to be featured on the Huffington Post Books page today. If you’re looking to read part of the book before you purchase, they’ve got an excerpt from the opening essay, and previews of several of the featured maps....

Three Questions: Cameron Booth

For the third in our series of short interviews with Atlas of Design contributors, we bring you Cameron Booth, brilliant designer, transit map nerd and cartographer of U.S. Numbered Highways as a Subway Map. Cameron is a graphic designer, photographer and (d’uh)...

Three Questions: Adam Wilbert, CartoGaia

For the second in our series of short interviews with Atlas of Design contributors, we bring you Adam Wilbert, the mastermind behind Oyster Appellations of the Pacific Northwest, Sheet 2 of 4: Northern Puget Sound. Adam is a cartographer, photographer, teacher (check him...

Three Questions: Ben Sheesley, Axis Maps

To give you all a chance to learn a little bit more about the brilliant folks whose works fill the Atlas of Design, we’re kicking off a series of three-question interviews with some of our contributors. Ben Sheesley, one of...

Choosing the Finalists

So, a few weeks ago we announced the final selections for the Atlas of Design. Twenty-seven great examples of some of the world’s great cartography. Today we want to talk about how those selections were made. We received about 140...

Press Check on Monday Morning

We couldn’t take too many photographs, but here’s a shot of one of the color proofs we received last week, side-by-side with the less-glossy press proof of the same section.

A Physical Object

So, what is this thing going to look like? The Atlas of Design is meant to be a showcase of beautiful and inspiring work, and we realized early on that this meant we had to make sure the physical book,...

Proofs

Just received the proofs from the press this afternoon!

Last Check

We ran off and checked a final internal proof copy today before we deliver our files to the printer. It’s nearly 50’ long!

A Preview of the Selections

The layout is done, we’ve got copyright releases from everyone, and we’re just a few small adjustments away from delivering files to the press. Now, at long last, we can begin to share with you the book’s contents! Click to...

Checking In

Hey everyone! Sorry for going quiet for so long, but we’ve been so busy working on creating the Atlas of Design that we haven’t had a lot of time to actually tell you all about what we’ve been up to....

Selections Made

We received an amazing set of submissions for the Atlas of Design, and the process of cutting this group down into a final selection has not been easy. We simply don’t have the space to publish all the great stuff...

Project Update: Judging Begins

Hello everyone! We’re really excited about how the NACIS Atlas of Design is shaping up, and we wanted to share an update on our progress with all of you now that we’ve reached the next major phase of the project....

What is the Atlas of Design?

While we working on getting our inaugural edition together, we wanted to share with you what our publication is about. There’s a lot of great cartography out there, and our goal is to both honor the people making it, and...

About the Editors

The Atlas of Design is a publication of the North American Cartographic Information Society, an organization of mapping professionals in academia, government, and the private sector. The Atlas of Design project is headed up by two NACIS members, Tim Wallace...