This map received first prize in the graduate division for the 2016 UW-Geography Department Barbara Petchenik Memorial Award in Cartographic Design.
It has also been featured on CBS This Morning and Edge Effects, the digital magazine published by graduate students in the Center for Culture, History and Environment in the Nelson Institute at the Unviersity of Wisconsin-Madison.
About: This was my final project for my introduction to cartography course. We were allowed to create a map of anything. Because of my work on a phylogeographic project that involved ancient trade, along with my background in ancient history, I chose to make a map of the ancient silk road that had the look of a document from 2000 years ago.
Process: My goal with this map was to create an artistic representation of the land and sea trade routes between the Mediterranean and Far East. The map was designed to look and feel like it could have been produced in the 1st century. All line work, text, and terrain were designed to look hand-drawn and imperfect. The texture of the map is reminiscent of the papyrus that served as paper at the time and was created by adding an opacity mask and a mesh in Illustrator. The terrain and topography were created in Photoshop. I used different strokes, textures and line features in Illustrator to make the trade routes and rivers look hand drawn. I also wanted to add context about the history of the silk road to show the audience that international commerce has been around for much longer than people realize.
Completed December 2015