Thursday, January 28, 2010

Searching for Famous Outdoor Globes and Maps

We are on a search for pictures of famous outdoor globes and maps like this one of the Unisphere. The Unisphere is a 12 story, spherical stainless steel representation of the globe. It was constructed to celebrate the beginning of the space age at the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair. It is located in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York City. It is the world's largest global structure weighing in at 700,000 pounds and is 140 feet tall. The diameter is 120 feet.

It was designed by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke and donated by US Steel. The Unisphere has been featured in film and TV shows of all kinds, including Earth 2100, Law and Order, The King of Queens and of course  the 1997 movie, Men in Black
To learn more about this check out the wikipedia page on it.

We need your help
We are trying to located and post all kinds of global map structures like this, not just globes but also regular indoor and outdoor maps that live in the environment, on walls, buildings, parks, anywhere, flat or dimensional. If you know of any we would love for you to take a picture and email them to us and we will put them up on the blog. We are interested in any kinds, from anywhere in the world. Please email to bruce@bjdesign.com

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mapparium at the Christian Science Plaza



One of the world's coolest maps is the Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library at the Christian Science Plaza in Boston, MA. The mapparium, designed by Chester Lindsay Churchill, is a three story tall glass globe made up of stained glass. When you visit the globe you tour it by walking through its center. This map was built in 1935 in the Library and reflects the world as it was at that time. The library is a  public museum and library at the church and features many exhibits. The globe now features a computer-controlled light show highlighting regions and is designed to be viewed from the inside. Because of its hard glass surface it forms a whispering gallery that lets one hear someone from the far side.  Since 1935 more than 10 million people have visited this amazing structure.

The mapparium can be viewed everyday but Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library website.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Babson College World Globe

Calling all maps, Calling all maps. We are looking for cool outdoor and public maps from anywhere in the world. Let start off with one in our own backyard. This is the World Globe at Babson College in Babson Park, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA . It was dedicated in 1955 and then refurbished in 1993. It is one of the largest free standing globes in the world, 28 feet in diameter and coming in at 25 tons. And it can spin on its base and axis. A buddy of mine who was a student at Babson used to turn it on and get it spinning. You can see more about it on the museum archives page on the Babson.edu site.

We would love to see what you find, so locate a public map, can be in a park, on a wall, on a floor, anywhere, take a picture and send it to me and I will put it up on the blog. Send to bruce(at)bjdesign(dot)com

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Using World of Maps in an Upcoming Book

Customer Question: I am interested in using your maps in a book that I will be publishing, are there royalty fees to pay? do I need to indicate source of the maps on each page or at the end of the book?


Answer:  Thank you for visiting our site and for your question. You are free to use the maps in your book, there are no additional royalties that you have to pay and you do not have to mention the source. If you want to somewhere that is cool but we don't require it at all.

The only restriction we have is if you are making a map clipart book, for that we have a license but other than that no problem at all. Would love to know the subject matter and when you get it done let me know and I will put a link to it on our blog if you want.

very cool, thank you for asking, please let me know if you have questions. Check out all our maps at www.mapsfordesign.com

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Pacific Rim Map from the US to Japan and Korea

Customer Questions: I am looking for a EPS format map showing the entire Pacific Rim, needs to include west coast of U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Far East, Japan, Korea, China, and also the South Pacific.  Do you have such a map?  If so whats the cost and can I see it?

Answer: We don't have an actual Pacific Rim map but we do have a number of world projection maps in Adobe Illustrator that could be easily edited. I have attached a jpg picture of one, Because you are working in Illustrator (eps) you could easily move the pieces around, and cut off the parts of the map you don't need.  We also have a world projection map with Australia in the center and it is basically a Pacific Rim map.

You can check out all of our maps at www.bjdesign.com, the cost is $149.95 for unlimited download of everything.

Please see attached and let me know if you have any questions on what we offer.

Here is the actual page  for our World Projection maps on our site for you to review, just scroll down to see all of the maps.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Using World of Maps for Slide Presentations


Customer Question: I am interested in the World of Maps for slide presentations on travels. Have a iMac. Will it work. I am look specificially for INDIA, NEPAL, BHUTAN, TIBET?

Answer: Thank you for visiting our site and for your question. Yes you will be able to use our maps with your iMac. We have three formats. So if you have PowerPoint or Keynote then you can use the PowerPoint ones and edit and customize all you want.

If you have Adobe Illustrator then the eps maps would work and you can custom the maps

And if you have neither of these you can use the jpg versions of the maps. The jpgs will go into iPhoto or any photo editing program you might have such as Adobe Photoshop. And if you don't have a photo editing program other than iPhoto then you could use an online one like Picnik to edit and customize http://www.picnik.com/

All of these formats come included for the one price on or subscription site www.bjdesign.com or if you just need a single map then check out www.mapsfordesign.com, or individual site.