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Map of the Month 9/2011: The Beautiful Game

At the 25th International Cartography Conference in Paris, France, the map won the first jury’s prize in the category “Thematic Maps”. The jury stated:

Original cartogram with “cheekyness”. Proper application of semiological rules.

The Beautiful Game: A World of Football. Click in the map to zoom in.

Cartographer’s Description: A large format map providing a unique view of ‘the beautiful game’, a synonym widely used to describe the world of football/soccer. A map of the world is transformed into a Dorling cartogram that emphasises the main football playing nations and federations that represent them internationally.

Each country is represented as its own football, scaled to reflect the number of professional football teams that play in the country. The badges of teams fill each symbol creating a colourful, vibrant tapestry of club football that locates the world's major clubs and which gives a unique view of the spatial pattern and concentration on a global scale. The use of a cartogram provides increased space to locate club badges for national federations that have numerous clubs, shrinking those areas with fewer clubs which creates a way of accommodating the distribution appropriately for display.

The country footballs have been placed inside the backdrop of a football stadium and the etymology of the word ‘football’ is represented through national association to truly demonstrate the global appeal and cross-cultural nature of the beautiful game.

  • Printed Map
  • Dimensions: A0
  • Author: Kenneth Field, Esri Inc
  • Published by Kenneth Field
  • Date published: 08/2010
  • Category: Thematic Maps
  • Languages: English

For more information contact Kenneth Field.

 

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