Author: Aaron Koelker
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NEW YORK STATE PARK SYSTEM
This map depicts the many units of the New York State Park System (with some caveats), and is the second project I designed specifically with a risograph printer in mind. Unlike the previous project of Taughannock Gorge—which was drawn by hand—this map was made almost entirely in Adobe Illustrator (with some final touches in Photoshop).…
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GLACIAL GARDENS
This project tells the story of glacial relicts and climate change refugia, focusing on changes since the last glacial maximum in North America and an endangered plant called Leedy’s roseroot. It was built using ArcGIS StoryMaps and ArcGIS Pro, with graphics drawn digitally on an iPad using the Procreate app. I wanted the look to…
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TAUGHANNOCK GORGE
This map(?) of Taughannock Gorge, located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, was drawn with the Procreate app on iPad and printed out using a risograph. A risograph printer is sort of like a hybrid of photocopiers and screen printing. Like photocopiers, they have a scan bed on the top (though I…
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BOSTON MARATHON
If you want to skip to the map on mobile, click here. This 10’8″ long ribbon map (or strip map) of the Boston Marathon route was made to be printed on 2″ wide receipt paper. Continuing what has become a minor exploration of impractically long maps: this was the most challenging one yet and combined…
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GREAT LAKES POSTCARD
This was a quick afternoon project to experiment with a hand-drawn workflow. Using Natural Earth data, I exported out three reference images from QGIS (lakes, urban areas, and city points) into the Procreate app on iPad. Then I manually drew out the lakes, shore outlines, urban areas, and city points by hand using a modified…
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WATERFALLS OF ITHACA
This map may forever be “in-progress”. Having recently moved from Tallahassee, Florida over to Ithaca, New York, I wanted to work on a project that could help familiarize me with the area, and settled on the idea of a comprehensive map of Ithaca’s many waterfalls. Given my experience with waterfalls in Florida—where every bit of…
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MATANZAS RIVERKEEPER
This map was a volunteer project for Matanzas Riverkeeper—a grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to the health and protection of the Guana, Tolomato, Matanzas estuary and watershed through advocacy, education, and community engagement. The purpose was to have a map of the watershed to display at community tabling events and help engage with residents. The watershed is in…
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WAKULLA RECEIPT MAP
This map was designed to be printed on six feet of thermal receipt paper. Why on earth would anyone do that, you ask? After making a ribbon map of the Suwannee River, multiple people (jokingly?) suggested that I look into receipt printers when I explained how I needed to print the Suwannee map out in…
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GREEN ORANGES AND LAND
In the 2022–2023 growing season, the Florida Citrus industry recorded its lowest fruit output since 1935. Increasingly harsh environmental factors—including cold snaps, hurricanes, pests, and disease—have left Florida’s once dominant industry on the edge of collapse and a target for its own ravenous real estate market. This StoryMap covers a brief history of citrus in…
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ST KILDA
St Kilda is a small cluster of islands in the North Atlantic, located about 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The human history of these islands dates back at least two millennia, and many ancient structures can still be found there today—including prehistoric stone rings, the walls and foundations of a medieval…