Kevin Kelly: “Raven maps are artwork. They are the most detailed US state maps you can find on one sheet. Printed in exquisite detail on heavy paper, they radiate clarity. Their colored shaded relief highlights the topology of their place with intelligence and precision. Unlike most maps, Raven maps deliver two perspectives at once — an expansive overview and tiny close-up details — a very rare combination you won’t find in an atlas or road maps.”

“A Wayfinding system incorporates branding, signs, maps and directional devices that tell us where we are, where we want to go, and how to get there. An effective wayfinding system can add an important dimension to the image of a museum, a transit system, an airport, an office building, or an entire city. It can be designed as a savvy helper that gives information and direction to people in a clear, appropriate, user friendly way, to assist them in finding their way into, through, and out of an environment.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)

“It was gorgeous. It was abstract. It was criticized. It was confusing. And it’s back.

With its 45- and 90-degree angles and one color per subway line, the 1972 subway map by Massimo Vignelli was divorced from the cityscape, devoid of street or neighborhood names. It was criticized because its water was not blue and its parks were not green. Paul Goldberger called it “a stunningly handsome abstraction” that “bears little relation to the city itself.”

Now Men’s Vogue has asked Mr. Vignelli to update his subway map for the May design issue.” (Thanks Information Design Watch!)

“Maps are everywhere these days. The ubiquity of global positioning systems (GPS) and mobile directional devices, interactive mapping tools and social networks is feeding a mapping boom. Amateur geographers are assigning coordinates to everything they can get their hands on—and many things they can’t.”

“I spent some time Saturday afternoon in Chelsea looking at a couple shows that I’ve been meaning to see for a while. I was pleasantly impressed with the painted maps by Paula Scher and somewhat underwhelmed by the theatrics that surrounded the collection of work from Banksy.”

“Need to know the capital of Vanuatu? Interested to find out the major export of Madagascar? Itching to find out about the (homo)sexual tension on Columbus’ trips to The New World? Then we have just the book for you!

Atlas, Schmatlas is a 128 page hardback book chock-a-block with essential information (fact and fiction), maps, and illustrations about every country in the world.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)

“This article introduces the mental process, analysis and evaluation applied by designers during their work on the Warsaw subway signage system project. Users’ points of view were predominant in the design procedure. Establishing the groups of potential information receivers and their needs allowed designers to define the scope of the system and areas it was to cover. Envisioning the street-train-street ‘path’ of users allowed designers to build the conceptual model that defined the design problems and solutions.” (Thanks Doug Wilson!)

A funny page that shows you the world’s largest lake, largest island, and the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island — and everything in between.

“From navigating the Web in entirely new ways to seeing where in the world twitters are coming from, data visualization tools are changing the way we view content. We found the following 16 apps both visually stunning and delightfully useful.” (Thanks Mapping-news.com!)

When will the leaves be prettiest?

“If you’re going underground, why do you need bother about geography? It’s not so important. Connections are the thing… Transport for London provide nine current official versions and two interactive variants of the London Underground network diagram. The design has undergone constant tweaking, both to accommodate new stations and to clarify the network…”

“Using FeedMap you can geo-code your blog, browse already geo-coded blogs and search for blogs. Once geo-coded, you can get your own BlogMap location using a simple url that allows you to network with your local bloggers and much more!”

“A clickable, zooming map written in Flash and colored by data from an external text file. The external data file makes it easy to customize and update, and to use the same Flash file many times in the same Web page with different data sets.”

“Nineteenth century engineers used a variety of scientific instruments in gathering the data to complete their maps. These included the following items…” (Thanks The Map Room!)

“Urban Cartography is a collaborative weblog (i.e., anyone can contribute, and we wish you would; just write us for a posting account) dedicated to covering cartography and related subjects: urban planning, land use, imaging, GIS technology, urban studies and anything else that fits under the umbrella.”