[znor]

Hey guys! I´m the cartographer that designed this map, here are a few other examples of our work if anyone´s interested: http://www.borgarmynd.com

A friend let me know about the post and I just wanted to say thanks for posting and feedback, much appreciated :) I got a few of my architect and graphic designer friends to work on this map with me while we were still in school, 7 years ago, and the website with the zoom feature is done by Brian Suda http://www.suda.co.uk A total of 5 people (4 architects & 1 graphic designer) took part in making the map and 3 more of our graphic designer friends helped in one way or another on layout, web design etc.

The map is actually a collage of 186 a3 watercolor sheets that took 2 years (2300 hrs)to 3d model, draw and paint. The watercolor sheets were all based on 3d models we made first of each house, using city planning groundplans and sections, so the accuracy (even though it might look all cute and cuddly) is very high (Every tree, flagpole etc. is based on actual objects) We update the map every year, draw in new buildings, paint in new colors of houses etc.

For those interested, the map is an axonometric projection of my home town Reykjavík, Iceland. We used this kind of projection in order to maintain scale within the map.

ps: I´m on the map, good luck finding me!

[ademarre]

Wonderful work!

> We update the map every year, draw in new buildings, paint in new colors of houses etc.

It would be cool to have a time slider control to see how the city has changed over time. Similar to what Google Earth does for selecting aerial photos from different dates.

> I´m on the map, good luck finding me!

I'll take a shot at it... I only see a handful of people depicted and they're on the little boats. Are you one of them? Do these possibly represent each of the project collaborators?

[znor]

Well, you wouldn´t see much difference. A large area of what´s depicted has a preservation status. But great idea, I´ll check the difference in a few years :)

And no, I get seasick, I´m sunbathing on a roof somewhere ;) We were all on the map, I´m noticing some got lost during last update, I´ll add them back in soon!

[kilotaras]

Maybe you can have an option to highlight the difference from previous year. Shouldn't be a lot of work, seeing as changes are infrequent.

[rogerdickey]

I think I found you. Are you the white figure?

[plaguuuuuu]

So much of the internet is bland and corporatised. Stuff like this adds the humanity back into the net.

[znor]

Much obliged fellow human :)

[polack]

Amazing work! Thanks for sharing some backgorund info.

ps. Are you the giant white person laying on the roof? :)

[znor]

hehe, damnit, you weren´t supposed to find me that fast. Keep the location to yourself ;) and sshhhh....I´m obviously trying to catch up on my tan there, can´t you see how pale we are up here in the arctic?

[colanderman]

Thanks for this! My wife and I found it very helpful when we were in Reykjavik last year. Actually stitched the tiles together and printed it on one page on our color laser printer... didn't quite do it justice but seeing the actual buildings was super-helpful finding our way around.

[znor]

I´d say it would be common courtesy to get yourself a poster: http://www.sparkdesignspace.com/is/shop/product/reykjavik-ce... instead of printing out our copyrighted material that took years to make ;)

[colanderman]

Hard to carry a 90×67 cm poster around ;) We'd have gladly paid for a foldable map if one were available.

[hereandthere2]

Hi you should set debug mode to false in production. when i got a 404 it had showed me the line that failed. as well as some other info

[Udo_Schmitz]

Wow. I'm a graphic designer myself and always wanted to try this for my neighborhood. Do you really go and look at each building and draw it? And do I have to be slightly insane to do this or will I become slightly insane doing this?

[znor]

hehe, insane is a good word to describe this one. I´m not sure of the long term consequences but there were long nights, weeks, months and years spent on this one.

It´s even a tad bit more than you guessed. First: Make photocopies of ground plans, sections and drawings of each side of appr.600 houses at the city planning office.(appr.3.000 a2 sheets of paper if I remember correctly) Sit down for one summer with two friends, model those buildings and play a lot of ping pong in between to keep mentally stable. Then charter a plane, persuade the air control to get you permission to fly 10 circles over a busy city center to photograph almost each house from the same angle (for colors and details such as flagpoles, trampolines etc.). Then walk the streets to photograph missing parts.

After all of that: Decide on an angle, start trying to find a suitable style, do test blocks, then draw 186 a3 drawings, watercolor each one using the aerial photos for accurate colors and then finally assembling the map, color grading, bunch of dodging and burning, street names, et voilá, you got yourself a map!

No problem really......

[Udo_Schmitz]

OK. Well … I suddenly decided to start with a very small area. And maybe todays Map services (Apples Flyover, Ex-Nokias Here) can stand in for the plane chartering. And I think I'll draw digital. znor, If you are still around: do you happen to know how graphic designers approached this in a time before computers? I remember seeing maps like this as a kid and assume none back then did 3D-modeling?

[znor]

Yes, there are many ways of doing this. Some of todays services like StreetView would have helped a lot. But do keep in mind that if you create the data from scratch yourself you´ll have much better control over things and a better understanding of how to portray the data in the best possible manner for each given project. We went the ultra detail-perverted way on this one :) By using our own data I also know for a fact I won´t run into any licensing or copyright issues, and apart from that I´m able to use the 3d models for all sorts of stuff. If you need some further tips you´re free to send me an email at [e-mail]

[myth_buster]

Incredible effort! Kudos on keeping it updated. Has Google Earth helped in easing out your workflow and associated costs?

[znor]

No, I don´t like using their data for anything cause of possible copyright issues. I´ve got a much more detailed, game engine based 3d model of Iceland now than they do anyway ;)

[eleventigers]

FYI, your site is throwing debug traces in production and that is not something I or others should see: http://i.imgur.com/cWmHNMz.png

[znor]

Thanks for the heads up!

[olapersson]

Beautiful work.

Is it ok to embedded this (and the full Iceland map) with an iframe?

[znor]

Tack sa mycket :) That shouldn´t be a problem, I´ll look into it.

[olapersson]

Actually, if you don't mind I'd love to write a post about the project. If you're up to answering a couple of questions drop me a line at [e-mail]. :)

[skywritergr]

This is really amazing and unique work. In a world of bland maps/websites this is a breath of fresh air.

[edpichler]

Congratulations, this is really a beautiful software. Do you have an idea of the total budget spent in such beautiful project?

[znor]

All honor of the online solution goes to my friend/genius Brian Suda: http://www.suda.co.uk, though I worked with him on the design and supplied data. 3d,drawing+painting+coding=you don´t wanna know, I tend to shock most customers with initial estimates, which is why most of the projects are self initiated, like this one.

[edpichler]

Yes I can imagine that is expensive. But I was just wondering if this kind of software was possible in, per example, cities with "less stable economies", once I know that is expensive and take a lot of hours working on all this details.

[znor]

yes of course, we´ve used this map zoom solution on a number of our own projects and for different clients. There´s a beautifully simple admin system behind it to add and edit points etc.

[yownie]

Hi Snorri, -J

[znor]

hehe, I seem to know surprisingly many people here whoever you are