How I Made the Essential Geography

A key to the Essential Geography’s readability is its manual-digital construction. For this, I used a computer as a power-assisted drafting tool, and a darkroom, rather than as a tool of automation.

I drafted the lines and placed the type entirely by eye, allowing me to manage each detail for maximum readability. To see the advantage to spending the abundant extra time needed to work by eye, compare below, how much more clearly the rivers on the Essential Geography, right, harmonize spatially with the roadways.

To illustrate the terrain for this edition, I spent four years developing digital photo-editing techniques, which I used to play three shade images off one another. Shade images included one with typical NW light, one with vertical light, and one lighted by elevation. The resulting terrain image has the aesthetic of a watercolor painting, one that draws the eye to form and space. By adding terrestrial context to the overprinting cartography, form and space complete the geographic picture.

In addition to maximizing readability, I feel manual-digital practices give my work a human touch that is relatable and easy on the eye.

National Geographic, left. Essential Geography, right.