The National Geographic Society has a long and rich legacy of publishing its Magazine with the iconic yellow border on the cover. But the not-for-profit isn’t trapped in the era of printed tales about the travels of Victorian-era explorers. Far from it. Among the Society’s initiatives are the funding of scientists, fostering technology to help explore and understand, and promoting geographic knowledge through programs such as the National Geography Bee.

In order to map these endeavors, the Society turned to us. The challenge was to leverage the history and brand recognition in good-looking, interactive, electronic maps for the web and for apps. Working with The Geographer, Alex Tait, we designed quiet maps that would take a back seat to the thematic information. National Geographic‘s proprietary fonts lend an air of prestige and authenticity to the maps. The bright color scheme is adapted from the National Geographic Atlas of the World.

When Alex’s colleagues at National Geographic Partners saw the work, they employed vW Maps to develop maps for their purposes, too. We’re developing these maps in the first half of 2018. Stay tuned!

Interact with the maps depicted below on the National Geographic Explorers website and the Geo Bee Challenge app.