Joshua Cohen is a Principal at Fat Pencil Studio
If you've ever visited Fat Pencil Studio (or seen my SketchUp profile video) you know about all the maps and infographics that decorate our walls. They serve as inspiration for our work, and are pretty darn interesting to stare at from time to time. After reading an article about Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas, I knew right away that I wanted a copy of this book to extend the mappy theme of our office.
As luck would have it (or, hmm, maybe it had something to do with a savvy publicity campaign) authors David Banis and Hunter Shobe were speaking at Powell's just a few days after I first heard about the book. So I picked up a copy and headed over to listen them tell a fascinating story of how geography intersects with culture to create a sense of place.
The book includes a nice balance of topics: from urban landscapes to popular culture. The maps and diagrams represent several years of work by a team of cartographers and uses a wide range of creative graphics to visually tell each story.
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A shaded contour map shows "islands of diversity" in the Portland metro area.
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3d diagram shows where streams pass beneath downtown Portland on the way to the river.
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A "small multiples" diagram showing noise level in different sections every minute of a Portland Timbers soccer match.
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Signed by the authors