There are a lot of map competitions out there. But to the best of my knowledge, none is devoted specifically to the appreciation of monochrome maps. And it’s time to remedy that. I love working in monochrome (and gave a talk about it at NACIS 2018). I think color is overused, and the challenges of a limited palette can be liberating. I want to draw more attention to the great work that mapmakers are doing in this medium, and encourage more people to experience the joy of composing with only one ink.
So, I’m hereby declaring a Monochrome Mapping Competition! Please help spread the word, so that we can reach mappers everywhere. It’s starting small, but I truly want this to grow into a respected competition that recognizes great work in an under-appreciated subset of the cartographic arts.
How to Enter
Option 1 (preferred): Fill out this form (requires Google login).
Option 2: Email your map (or, a link, if it’s a web map) to somethingaboutmaps@gmail.com. Include a title and list of contributors for each work.
Deadline: June 15th, 2019
Rules and Freedoms
- Entries must be in monochrome. What counts as “monochrome”? Well, it can be a little complicated, depending on how creative you want to get. Here’s a quick explanation of what I’m looking for.
- They don’t have to be greyscale. A green and white map is as welcome as a black and white map.
- You may submit up to three entries.
- All entries need to have been completed in the last five years or so (after January 1st, 2014). This is a competition honoring the fact that monochrome is a part of contemporary cartography.
- Entries may be at any size and in any medium — hand-drawn, digital, static, interactive, etc. If you’re not sure if it counts, enter it and let me and the judges figure that out.
- You can suggest a better name for the competition. “Monochrome Mapping Competition” is a bit of placeholder for now.
How you Win
I’ll collect a (digital) pile of map submissions from all of you folks. Then I’ll turn them over to a panel of judges, who will look over and score each one. The highest-scoring maps (mostly: see below) will end up being in the Final Selection — the winners. The exact number of selections is going to depend a bit on how many maps are submitted.
If this sounds familiar, it’s basically the process that Tim Wallace and I developed for the Atlas of Design. There is no one “winner,” and there are no hard categories — the process recognizes that many items can all be co-equally great, each quite different in appearance and pleasing to separate audiences.
The Final Selection of winners isn’t based 100% on the judges’ scores; there are a couple of adjustments I may make, as the Curator (a title I just now made up for the competition-runner). No one mapmaker can appear more than once in the Final Selection, so if they have several that are high-scoring, I will choose one of them. Likewise, if I see a particular map type really dominating (like shaded relief maps, for example), and it’s monopolizing all the top spots, I might put a cap on the number of places for that type in the Final Selection. So, in sum: the judges’ scores are the main factor in consideration, but I may make adjustments when choosing the final winners to ensure that no one person, company, or map type takes up a bunch of the spotlight.
What you Win
Honor and glory. There’s no money at stake here, and we’re not publishing a book of winners (maybe someday). But you’ll be touted by me and others, and all the maps in the Final Selection will be posted here on this very blog. Each selection will also be accompanied by a brief commentary, written by one of the judges, giving us all a better understanding of what makes each map great.
Judges
I’m very excited to say that a bunch of really awesome people have signed up to judge the maps. Click here to read the list, alongside a discussion of how the panel was chosen.
Note that judges can also enter the competition. They’ll simply step aside and recuse themselves from judging their own work, and it will be scored by the rest of the panel.
Those are all the details. Please enter your work and spread the word around the globe. I’m excited to see what everyone comes up with!
somethingaboutmaps 
I love this idea and I will pull together an entry or two. In the meantime how about MoMaCom for the name of the competition?
It’s fun to say aloud! When you get your entry together, there’s a spot on the form where you can suggest a competition name. Hopefully I’ll be able to collect a few from people =).