The 1920s was a golden age for pictorial maps. These maps were not just functional tools for navigating the world, they were also works of art in their own right - beautifully illustrated with scenes from everyday life, landmarks and historical figures.
Every map tells a story but the maps of the 1920s and 30s told theirs at full volume and in technicolor. The graphic artists that created these maps often took them on as side gigs, a way to make a few extra bucks.
Combining the aesthetics of emerging mass advertising, posters, cinema, comics, and cartoons into the world of cartography, they injected tourist maps with a new kind of energy and vigour.
One of the most famous pictorial maps of this era was The Wonderground Map of London Town, created by graphic designer, letterer, mapmaker and architect, MacDonald Gill.
Described as one of the most influential pictorial maps ever published, Gill’s map is distinguished by its striking colours, cartoon style and sense of humour. It was commissioned as part of an ambitious marketing strategy that tasked commercial artists with creating posters to promote the London Underground Railway.
Despite its origins as an advertising campaign, it sparked a worldwide creative wave of colourful illustrated maps and soon found itself elevated on the international art scene.
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