K Street – Washingtonian Magazine

Top 10 Lobby Firms in Washington, DC

I’m really into maps lately, and I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to draw a few over the summer. The art director of the Washingtonian saw the map I illustrated for Seattle Met (here) and asked me to work on this full-page map of Washington, D.C. with him.

This was another fun one, showing the buildings that house the offices of the top ten lobbyist firms in Washington, D.C. and how only one of them remains on K Street, Washington’s hub of influence.

A detail of two of the buildings.

The final printed map with street names and firm names added in. One of my favorite details is the Washington Monument in the compass rose.

I drew this statue from Farragut Square and the Dupont Circle fountain to place on the map, but unfortunately had to leave them off when things got too crowded.

Mount Rainier National Park – Seattle Met Magazine

Two-page spread map of Mt.Rainier in Washington.

I’m happy to finally share this map I illustrated for Seattle Met magazine. It is a two page spread and was a really fun project that I worked on in June and July. I have only recently started illustrating maps for various publications, but I really love it (here are some previous maps for Outdoor Life, and I’ll have a couple new ones to show soon).

I was given a list of activities and landmarks of the park that had to be included. You’ll see in the spread above that 10 of these items are listed on the right (designed by the excellent designers at Seattle Met).

So I set to work researching these things and taking photos for the people. I consulted a book of maps I own for inspiration and really dived into this illustration. It was tricky, but with the help of the art director, André Mora, we managed to fit everything on the map where it belongs and without obstructing the main routes.

You can see some larger images of the map on my website or on Seattle Met’s Flickr page.

Here are some detail shots:

I drew the detailed topography of the park in pencil to show through below the colors of the map. This alone was a lot of work!

These two hikers are about to start off on their journey through Mt. Rainier’s trails. The guy poised for adventure is me.

The type is hand-lettered on this wood-framed sign of picturesque Mt. Rainier. Some birds you’ll find in the park sit nicely on the edges.

One of my favorite images on the map is this old-style camper. There’s one at the end of my street that people sell blueberries out of in the summer. I have plans for a separate painting of that.

Here are a couple more favorites from the map. The compass rose and old station wagon carrying a canoe. All the text on the map was hand-drawn.

There are some great spots for mountain biking in the park. This guy was fun to draw, but bikes are still tough to get right.