Copyright 2006-12 ©, Joe Mills. All rights reserved.
The brief was to create an unconventional map of the art museums, schools, galleries and public art in Chicago. While it needed to function as a map, it was imperative it have a strong aesthetic quality.
Click on the image to the left to see a larger version.
Personal work
2011
[...] How is the map organized? Even though I was not doing a traditional map, I still needed the buildings to be grounded in reality. I immediately scrapped using other buildings because I wanted the focus to be on the landmarks relevant to this map. I decided to keep it simple and use Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and the major roads surrounding downtown Chicago. Since the roads and water broke the map into sections, I placed the landmarks in the section you would find them. Since only a few roads are used, I decided to include the nearest intersection for each landmark. If the landmark is in a public park, I used that instead. While the main goal of this map was to make it interesting and appealing, I knew it also had to be useful. To see a more detailed version, click here. [...]