Design

Mapmaker, Artist, or Programmer?

Self-described "map geek" Eric Fischer uses urban data to make some of the web's most intriguing spatial images.
Courtesy of Eric Fischer

Some people look at the abundance of urban data out there and see an academic research paper. Others maybe see a table or a graph or a chart. Self-proclaimed "map geek" Eric Fischer sees some of the most intriguing maps and spatial images found on the Internet, just waiting to be created.

"Ultimately, almost everything I have been making tries to take the dim, distant glimpse of the real world that we can see through data and magnify some aspect of it in an attempt to understand something about the structure of cities," he says. "I don't know if that comes through at all in the actual products, but it is what they are all building toward."