Coolest artwork ever

By , December 14, 2011 5:30 am

I’ve expressed my love for maps here before. One of my favorite books is Transit Maps of the World – I just love flipping through it and deciphering the maps, especially if it’s a city I’ve visited! There are so many styles of maps and so many different ways of communicating – I just love taking it all in. 

Well, someone knows me very well (Erin!) and gave me these super cool stylized transit maps for Christmas! When I opened these I immediately got giddy and had to start figuring out which cities they were. 

The back left one was easy. I had to get hints from Erin to figure out the other two. Sad sad sad! Let’s just say my brain was mushy on Sunday?

Do you know which cities they represent? (you can click the picture to see it larger)

Of course, I had to bug Steven to help me put the artwork up right away! It was easy deciding where to put them – we have some skinny empty wall space upstairs around our linen closet:

So we put the two horizontal ones between the linen closet and Data’s room (the laundry room) and the vertical one between the linen closet and guest bathroom door:

I love the way it looks!

Does anyone else geek out over maps like I do?

28 Responses to “Coolest artwork ever”

  1. Kandi says:

    I love maps too! I don’t have any displayed (yet) but I enjoy them. I’ve decided I should start collecting those fun maps they have in different cities because I always pick one up if I see one and then use it the whole time we are there. I have one from Savannah and maybe from Niagara Falls. 🙂 I also have a friend who is a cartogragher and I like looking at maps that he’s drawn.
    The only thing I’m fairly certain of is that none of those maps are of the DC metro. 🙂 Otherwise, I have no idea.

  2. Erin says:

    I am so, so glad you like them so much 🙂

  3. ChezJulie says:

    I think there are two kinds of people in the world… those who are really into maps and those who aren’t. I fall into the latter camp but I still think these are pretty cool! Is the top left one London?

  4. Kristina says:

    I’m not sure that I geek out as much, but I am a big fan of maps – they are way cool!
    Nice way to decorate, by the way!

  5. Ren says:

    My guesses would be, clockwise, Chicago, NYC & DC.

  6. Melissa says:

    Is one of those Boston?

    I had to have some custom maps made for work and we used a local company…the guy that owns the company (and is a cartographer) must be REALLY lonely (or maybe I am just too polite?) because every time I would go in to check on things, he would teach me all sorts of things about mapping and cartography history and pulled out mapping books from the early 1900s, etc. I love learning about new things so I found it intersting (and I did not want to be rude) but it sounds like you would have LOVED it!

    I would always plan my visits to the shop near the end of the day because I knew it was going to be 45 minutes (minimum) and often longer than that! Heck, they even invited me to their Christmas party, I was there so often…HAHA! (I didn’t go)

    I think Matt ordered me a world map for Christmas (for travel tracking)…if he did, I hope he used my “mapping boyfriend’s” company (term used loosely, as dude is like 60+ years old)

    • kilax says:

      No Boston! All cities I’ve been to – London, Rome (lived there for awhile) and NYC.

      I think I really would have loved talking to your “bf” ha ha.

      I can’t wait to see the Matt made got you! We have a huge one at home that we pin our travels on 🙂 (it’s the first link in this post)

  7. Maggie says:

    I LOVE MAPS!! I have this map of my Grandpa’s that was the world as of the 1400s or something. (No, it’s not an original, I think he ordered it out of the back of a magazine.) My guess for your maps is NYC, DC and Boston?

  8. Christina says:

    Chicago, NYC, DC?

  9. Alice says:

    ooh, i need some hints too!! i’m pretty certain DC is NOT in there, and i’m intrigued with the maybe-nyc one.. if it is nyc, it’s on a different scale than i’m used to, not the way it’s represented on the subway maps on the walls there. i need to know now! which are they?? 🙂

    • kilax says:

      Hmm, since you asked for hints, that is what I will give you. One is called the tube, one is a place I just visited, and I lived in the other place for a couple of months in college 🙂

  10. Kapgar says:

    Those are all kinds of cool. I know you revealed them already but the one in the right looks like it could be LA as well.

  11. I love maps, too!!! And these maps are awesome! They look great in your home!

  12. love those transit maps! datas a lucky cat to have an entire room to herself.

  13. J says:

    That is such a sweet and awesome gift! I love it when people give gifts to people that are just so wonderful because they actually know and care about the person and so they try and think of something they would truly want as a gift. You two seem to have such a great friendship!

    • kilax says:

      Erin really knocked it out of the ballpark!

      And I know what you mean about gift giving – I really try to get gifts like that for everyone. But I can’t! The holiday season seems to remind me each year of how well I don’t know people in my life (that I should know better!).

  14. RunningLaur says:

    I love maps. Love them as art, love to study them, love to color and write all over them. My counties map is one of my favorite things in my house – I’m already planning how I get to color more in when I drive back to PA in 5 months!

  15. Steel Springs says:

    Those are great!

  16. Amy says:

    I got London right away too – but the other two I didn’t know. What a cool idea for a gift!

  17. Mica says:

    Is the upper right one New York??

    …Man, who am I kidding? I don’t know.

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