Discussion: Best wall map
in: Orienteering; General
Jan 5, 2012 12:43 PM
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I taught the guy all he knows ‹kidding!!›
Some back story:
I have a production credit on this map. I did roughly 200 hours of GIS data wrangling to give Dave a place to start, and the Photoshopped background image (shaded relief, land cover, etc) was mostly my work.
Dave and I have been collaborating on maps for about ten years or so. I introduced him to digital cartography (using Adobe Illustrator) and we worked out nearly all his production techniques together.
Of course that's primarily mechanics. My main contribution, I think, has been as an enabler for his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. In a good way! ;-)
But the Slate article absolutely nails Dave's story: the driven to the brink of self-destruction, starving artist. The part that's just now being written is about his 15 minutes of fame and the erasing of his considerable debts (as of this morning, the website has recorded over $100,000 in sales since the article appeared, and going strong).
Funny thing though, that financial windfall was derailed, at the absolutely most critical moment, by a bone-headed mistake yours truly. The imusgeographics.com website was built, yes, by me, and is hosted on my site5 account. When I set up his sub-account, I never looked at the bandwidth limit, which was set at 5GB/month by default. The article came out on Monday afternoon, Dave was on a road trip in the Sierras, I had no clue that anything was up. At about midnight, my cell phone rang with a very desperate Dave on the other end, saying the website was down and he was losing thousands of dollars in sales. He was not happy at all! Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on and to remove the bandwidth restriction. But the site had been down for three hours or so, and the lost sales will never be known (though I'm betting between $5,000-$10,000).
Some back story:
I have a production credit on this map. I did roughly 200 hours of GIS data wrangling to give Dave a place to start, and the Photoshopped background image (shaded relief, land cover, etc) was mostly my work.
Dave and I have been collaborating on maps for about ten years or so. I introduced him to digital cartography (using Adobe Illustrator) and we worked out nearly all his production techniques together.
Of course that's primarily mechanics. My main contribution, I think, has been as an enabler for his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. In a good way! ;-)
But the Slate article absolutely nails Dave's story: the driven to the brink of self-destruction, starving artist. The part that's just now being written is about his 15 minutes of fame and the erasing of his considerable debts (as of this morning, the website has recorded over $100,000 in sales since the article appeared, and going strong).
Funny thing though, that financial windfall was derailed, at the absolutely most critical moment, by a bone-headed mistake yours truly. The imusgeographics.com website was built, yes, by me, and is hosted on my site5 account. When I set up his sub-account, I never looked at the bandwidth limit, which was set at 5GB/month by default. The article came out on Monday afternoon, Dave was on a road trip in the Sierras, I had no clue that anything was up. At about midnight, my cell phone rang with a very desperate Dave on the other end, saying the website was down and he was losing thousands of dollars in sales. He was not happy at all! Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on and to remove the bandwidth restriction. But the site had been down for three hours or so, and the lost sales will never be known (though I'm betting between $5,000-$10,000).
Jan 5, 2012 4:07 PM
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bubo:
Great story!
And even if I´m - like most of the people on AP - a lot into the digital world and computerized this and that, I still prefer to read a paper map and not a digital version. In many ways - as is told in this story - a map is a piece of art. Who would like to just watch Mona Lisa on their smartphone
Of course a GPS navigator is practical on many occasions in your car but you´ll never get the same feeling and enough overview on a tiny screen as with your paper road atlas...
And even if I´m - like most of the people on AP - a lot into the digital world and computerized this and that, I still prefer to read a paper map and not a digital version. In many ways - as is told in this story - a map is a piece of art. Who would like to just watch Mona Lisa on their smartphone
Of course a GPS navigator is practical on many occasions in your car but you´ll never get the same feeling and enough overview on a tiny screen as with your paper road atlas...
Jan 5, 2012 4:10 PM
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fpb:
I suspect many of the "lost sales" tried again later (I did), so maybe your estimate isn't quite as bad as that.
Jan 5, 2012 4:34 PM
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What a great story and what a wonderful piece of work. It was lucky that Dave could call upon the best to lend a hand on this.
I've got to get me one of those.
I've got to get me one of those.
Jan 5, 2012 4:55 PM
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PG:
In case you're interested, Pat has made some wonderful maps too. Some are shown on his website. The page was last updated 6 years ago, but it will still give you a good idea of the amazing work Pat has done.
Jan 5, 2012 9:39 PM
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barb:
I'm having a little trouble accessing the website now.
Very cool article.
Very cool article.
Jan 5, 2012 10:55 PM
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I'm really happy to have this map brought up here! We were looking at it and talking about it at work today (a map I made won best of the reference category in that same competition a few years ago :-), and we are just blown away. It is truly a work of art.
I was wondering if Pat had any involvement with Imus Geographics. Cool to know the back story.
I was wondering if Pat had any involvement with Imus Geographics. Cool to know the back story.
Jan 26, 2012 5:57 PM
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I just heard an interview with Dave Imus on the radio. The first thing he did was to mention Pat Dunlavey!
Jan 27, 2012 6:30 PM
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Here is the WBUR Here&Now interview: Greatest map (with a Listen button).
Apr 28, 2012 2:58 PM
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also this morning on NPR's Living on Earth
transscript here
Note photo labeled "Don" Imus who is quite a different character :-)
or
listen here (scroll down)
transscript here
Note photo labeled "Don" Imus who is quite a different character :-)
or
listen here (scroll down)
Jul 20, 2015 3:44 AM
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Interesting video presentation by David Imus at the Eugene Public Library from last February. Many mentions of Pat Dunlavey.
Classical Cartography: The Missing Genre
The video is for sale, but it's also available free at the link above---look for Part 1 and Part 2.
Classical Cartography: The Missing Genre
The video is for sale, but it's also available free at the link above---look for Part 1 and Part 2.
Jul 20, 2015 10:56 AM
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Thanks for posting this Pat! I am buying the Wall map now and maybe another selection later.
This discussion thread is closed.