Visualizing Global Climate
Atlas Guo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Climate maps are essential tools for understanding global climate patterns. Despite its limitations, the Köppen-Geiger system remains the most widely used climate classification framework, yet most maps present only the resulting categories, condensing complex temperature and precipitation patterns into letter codes that can be difficult for non-specialists to interpret. Building on the conventional color scheme, this project visualizes monthly temperature and precipitation patterns through climate glyphs on a 1-by-1-degree geographic grid, accompanied by diagrams explaining how climate types are classified. The project includes a static reference poster and an interactive web map with responsive layouts, offering a more accessible way to explore global climate diversity while supporting geography education, public communication, and academic reference.
Tessellexicon: The Art of Blended Hexagonal Aggregations
Matt Hampton, Metro
This presentation introduces Tessellexicon, a series of eight maps built by spatially joining regional data to six hexagonal grids of varying cell size across the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, then blending the resulting layers into single compositions. Rather than presenting each scale in isolation, the work layers multiple hex resolutions within a single map, using feature blending to let coarse and fine aggregations coexist and interact visually — treating scale itself as a compositional variable rather than a fixed technical choice. The project frames hexagonal binning as a kind of visual vocabulary: each grid size functions as a distinct "word" for describing the same underlying phenomenon, and each blended composition becomes a sentence written in geometry rather than text. The eight resulting maps are less a finished statement than a set of working entries in a lexicon still being defined — testing where patterns hold steady across scales and where they dissolve or shift.This talk will cover the technical workflow for multiscale hex generation and spatial joins, the design decisions behind blending layers for legibility and visual hierarchy, and the broader argument for treating resolution and aggregation as artistic choices with cartographic consequences, not just analytical ones.
Revisiting Terrain Shader Tools
Gene Trantham, independent
A handful of powerful terrain shading tools are available to the GIS cartographer
wanting Blender-like effects -- but without having to move their data into Blender.
These tools, notably sky-model multi-directional shading, are not used more widely
because their configuration and execution is somewhat niche, requiring a specialized
external tool for configuration. In this short presentation,
a custom toolset will show a simplified and re-bundled interface to the algorithms
underlying sky model and similar shading tools. This workflow consolidates to a
single interface the sky-model configuration and execution without having to
leave the GIS desktop.
Relearning Cartogaphy Through Sculpture
Cooper Price Penn State, GeoGraphics Lab
I took a sculpture class that reframed how I think about and apply cartographic design. This was my first time exploring design through a physical medium, rather than a computer screen. Through tactile feedback, it brought a new understanding of concepts that I thought I already knew, like generalization, scale, and what a map can actually be and do. A type of understanding that I think is only possible through a tactile experience. I will show my process in creating sculptures that are mappy, and share about how these sculptures have changed my thoughts on design.
Revisting Color
Robert Simmon, Freelance
Color is one of the fundamental tools for encoding information on maps. Yet using color in a way that conveys precision and maintains accuracy, all while remaining accessible and aesthetically pleasing, remains challenging. New research in perception suggests refinements to the use of color in cartography beyond the existing, well-known recommendations. These include how people inherently perceive value, the importance of nameable colors, hidden advantages of the rainbow palette, expanding usage of ‘divergent’ palettes, and the semantics of color. By understanding these principles, a cartographer can make design choices and employ color in ways that reinforce each other, leading to maps that are clear, effective, readable, and elegant.
Where Are Your Best Clients? Making Spatial Analytics Accessible for Small Firms
Eugenie Huang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Reid Osborn, (he/him), University of Wisconsin-Madison
Internal data is one of the most precious resources an organization has; how can small firms best use it?
We propose a set of methods to integrate spatial data into organizational strategies (marketing, outreach, modeling), letting businesses and agencies alike build new insights into tackling old problems.
Using a San Diego-based real estate law firm’s internal data, we developed workflows which utilize GIS software, spatial database systems, and location-based statistical analyses to examine existing hypotheses and explore emergent, unexpected results. Then, we used cartographic design principles to ensure that the results aren’t just significant, but persuasive and intelligible.
11 Specialists. 11 Strategies. One Mission: Avoid Con Drop
Rebecca Ramsey
After a week immersed in maps, ideas, technology, and conversations with people who understand why GIS matters, conference attendees often return home energized and inspired — until reality, deadlines, and overflowing inboxes take over. This presentation explores avoiding “con drop,” many professionals feel after conferences, through a fun theme of personas. Using relatable scenarios and practical takeaways, attendees will learn realistic ways to maintain creativity, preserve connections, and turn conference inspiration into lasting professional growth during the long 364 days until they are together again.
