Stamen Design
LightNews LightNews
banner
stamen.com
Stamen Design
@stamen.com
560 followers 50 following 47 posts
We are a data visualization and cartography studio with over 20 years of experience helping people find and tell more beautiful stories with data. Learn more at stamen.com

Mastodon: vis.social/@stamen
Posts Replies Media Videos
stamen.com
In our latest blog post, we share our philosophy of dark mode basemaps. What are dark maps good for, and why might you need one? How do you design a dark mode map that is both beautiful and functional? All this and more, now on the blog at stamen.com/stamens-dark...
A dark-colored terrain map overlaid with the text "What makes a dark map style work?" A montage of dark-colored maps overlaid with the text: "The art and science of dark mode cartography, on the blog now"
November 7, 2025 at 5:38 PM
stamen.com
What do we map in the shadows?

Our iconic Toner map style, now in dark mode! Read about how we developed "Toner Dark" and "Toner Blacklite" on the blog now: stamen.com/what-we-map-....

Both styles are available from our friends at @stadiamaps@en.osm.town here: stadiamaps.com/explore-the-....
A screenshot of a black and white map with encroaching shadows around the margins. Overlaid on the map is the text "Dark greetings! (bat emoji) We took our iconic Toner map style..." Another screenshot of a dark map, with the image of two vampires from the TV show "What We Do In The Shadows". Text overlaid on the image says "...into the darkness with two new variations" Screenshot of a dark map with the text "Read more about Toner Dark..." Screenshot of a dark map with the text "... and Toner Blacklite on the Stamen blog"
October 31, 2025 at 4:33 PM
stamen.com
How is a brain like a mountain? Read "Brain Cartography: Mapping a place that everyone knows, but (almost) no one has ever been" here: stamen.com/brain-cartog...
A mysterious map of glowing dots and clouds, overlaid with the text "Knowing where something is isn’t the same as caring where something is..." A mysterious map of a cloud of white dots receding into the distance, overlaid with the text "...but sometimes..." A diagram of a human head showing that the previous images were all different visualizations of the brain. The diagram is overlaid with the text "...seeing is believing." A montage of brain visualizations and charts, overlaid with the text "Learn more about mapping the human brain on the blog!"
October 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
stamen.com
Stamen Lead Cartographer + Designer Kelsey Taylor ran a data viz and mapping workshop at the recent USGS Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Summer Symposium in Urbana, IL. Read more about the workshop at stamen.com/data-visuali...

#dataviz #design #maps #science #climate
A photo of several people sitting around tables working on laptops at a mapping workshop. Overlaid on the image is the text "Read about our recent data viz for climate science workshop on the blog now"
September 5, 2025 at 5:18 PM
stamen.com
Stamen recently collaborated with MetroMatch, a transit-first navigation tool focused on identifying destinations within walking distance of transit in U.S. cities. Read about how we redesigned their map for Washington, DC on the blog.

stamen.com/navigate-you...

#maps #transit #WashingtonDC
A map showing subway lines in DC with the text overlaid: "We designed maps for transit-first navigation in Washington, DC" A zoomed-in map of some subway stations and nearby points-of-interest, with the text overlaid: "Read about our collaboration with MetroMatch on the blog"
August 19, 2025 at 4:19 PM
stamen.com
This month #OpenStreetMap turns 21!

To mark the occasion, we dug into our archives to finish part 3 of Stamen's personal history of OSM, covering the years 2016 to the present. Check it out on our blog, including links to part 1 and 2 of the series:

stamen.com/part-3-our-b...
A montage of maps overlaid with the text "Celebrating the 21st anniversary of OpenStreetMap with a new post" A montage of maps overlaid with the text "looking back on Stamen and OpenStreetMap through the years"
August 5, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Stamen Design
mappingmashups.net
Direct link to the "basemap tesseract" Galaxy Brain meme subdued.social/@alan/111818...
Alan McConchie (@alan@subdued.social)
Attached: 1 image "basemaps are a tesseract" Not sure if I posted this before, but posting it again so I can find it by searching for "tesseract". #Tesseract #Hypercube #GalaxyBrain #basemap #basem...
subdued.social
July 16, 2025 at 6:41 PM
stamen.com
Read our recap of presentations, inspiration, and upcoming projects from the 2025 @stateofthemapus.bsky.social conference last month in Boston on the blog: stamen.com/stamen-at-st....
A section of a "galaxy brain" meme about basemaps, overlaid with the text "Check out our recap from State of the Map US 2025" A montage of maps overlaid with the text "Read more about the work we presented in Boston on the blog!"
July 16, 2025 at 5:31 PM
stamen.com
The Getty Institute just launched an online publication “Ed Ruscha's Streets of Los Angeles: Artist, Image, Archive, City", which includes several map visualizations we created to explore the vast digitized collection of Ruscha’s photographs of LA over the years: www.getty.edu/publications/ruscha/
The cover image of an online book with the text "Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles: ARTIST IMAGE ARCHIVE CITY" In the background is a photo of a car from the 1970s with rectangular buildings and palm trees in the distance A map of Los Angeles in the style of a Thomas Guide atlas, with 3D extruded lines indicating the streets photographed by artist Ed Ruscha A map zoomed in on Sunset Boulevard with marks along the road indicating the location of photographs in Ed Ruscha's archive, some of which are annotated with the word "tree" where computer image recognition software detected a tree A map of Sunset Boulevard highlighting two locations where Ed Ruscha photographed the same billboards over several decades
July 8, 2025 at 6:14 PM
stamen.com
New on the blog: we say goodbye to one of our oldest mapping tools... by creating a new map to visualize an archive of a half million user generated images! Read "Farewell, Map Stack" here: stamen.com/farewell-map...

Join us at the @stateofthemapus.bsky.social conference this Friday to hear more.
A montage of maps, overlaid with the text "Saying farewell to one of our beloved old map tools" A montage of maps, overlaid with the text "with a new map showcasing 12 years of cartographic creativity" A dark map of the world showing scattered yellow dots everywhere, overlaid with the text "We visualized a half million user-generated images created with our open-source tools." A black-and-white collage of maps overlaid with the text "Explore the archive yourself, and read our tribute to Map Stack on the blog"
June 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
stamen.com
Today and tomorrow, Stamen founder Eric Rodenbeck will be speaking at the Data Art Symposium at Harvard University!

Check out the livestream here: data-art.info/livestream

And the schedule of events here: data-art.info/schedule
DATA | ART
Data | Art explores the entanglements of data and artistic, scientific, and curatorial practices as a critical examination of how data configures aesthetic, social, and epistemic structures.
data-art.info
June 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
stamen.com
Stamen has designed a lot of maps across the carto industry over the years. Read about how Stamen uses tooling to debug maps, as we explore how data, tiles, and stylesheets work together to make beautiful maps.

Read now at stamen.com/debugging-10...
How open source tooling empowers our cartography debugging workflows... by allowing for map style comparison... ...and interactive data viz to see your map from a different perspective. Learn more about how we upgraded how we debug on the blog
May 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
stamen.com
We worked with the Science Museum to develop an interactive exhibit about The Congruence Engine, a 3-year research effort to digitally connect industrial heritage collections across the UK. Read more about our collaboration, focused on the industrial city of Bradford:

stamen.com/navigating-p...
Telling the story of how technology and people-power unlocked new insights for historians Read more about The Connection Engine for Science Museum
March 25, 2025 at 3:28 PM
stamen.com
Learn more about the data analysis and visualization tool we helped build for Stanford University's Natural Capital Project:

naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/news/natural...
Natural Capital Data is Now at Your Fingertips
New data hub features analysis-ready data for ecosystem service modeling, saving time with downloadable datasets and model outputs for integrating nature’s value into decisions.
naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu
March 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
stamen.com
It’s that time of year! Love it or hate it, #DaylightSavingTime is upon us, and we are listening to our podcast episode from a few years ago with cartographer @awoodruff.bsky.social about his Daylight Saving Time Gripe Assistant Tool. Give it a listen here:

stamen.com/andy-woodruf...
Pollinate Ep.12- Andy Woodruff & Griping About Daylight Saving Time | Stamen
Cartographer Andy Woodruff discusses his career in mapping and his tool that helps you prove whether you're right about Daylight Saving Time.
stamen.com
March 7, 2025 at 3:02 PM
stamen.com
Now on the blog: how we expanded UCSF’s Health Atlas from California (which we first collaborated on in 2019) to the entire US in 2024, including data and design updates across the entire tool.

Read now at stamen.com/taking-ucsfs...

#maps #basemaps #design #cartography #ucsf #health #choropleth
Taking UCSF’s Health Atlas National | Stamen
Stamen has been working with a team out of UCSF (University of San Francisco) Population Health and Health Equity to create and maintain their Health Atlas since 2019. You can read a bit about the ini...
stamen.com
March 6, 2025 at 7:08 PM
stamen.com
Today at Harvard, our own Eric Rodenbeck joins a conversation with Harvard University Graduate School of Design on "Engaging Spaces: Exploring Digital + Analog Responsive Environments"
Master in Design Studies presents OPEN CONVERSATIONS ENGAGING SPACES: EXPLORING DIGITAL + ANALOG RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTS Allen Sayegh, Eric Rodenbeck, and Marina Otero in conversation with K. Michael Hays, John May, and Malkit Shoshan. TUESDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2025 4:00-6:00 PM GUND HALL, STUBBINS ROOM 112
February 18, 2025 at 5:38 PM
stamen.com
On the blog: behind the scenes details on how we’ve migrated Columbia University’s Mapping Historical New York from raster to vector rendering. Read it now on the blog at stamen.com/vector-beesw....

#maps #basemaps #design #cartography #columbia #historicalmaps #newyork
A map of New York overlaid with the text "How we did it: vector beeswarm dot density data visualization" A zoomed in screenshot of a spiral of colored dots with the text: "Learn more about the technical details on the blog now"
February 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM
stamen.com
Now on the blog: a recap of our presentations at the recent North American Cartographic Information Society #NACIS conference (including videos of each talk)! #NACIS2024

stamen.com/stamen-at-na...
Stamen at NACIS 2024 | Stamen
The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2024 conference in Tacoma, WA was yet another fantastic gathering of cartographers, mappers, and map enthusiasts. Stamen was well-represente...
stamen.com
November 14, 2024 at 5:47 PM
stamen.com
Today we published the first of a three-part series: "Maps and visualizations we're keeping an eye on for Election Day". Part 1 is all about visualizing political polling! Read it now on our blog at stamen.com/maps-and-vis...
Maps and visualizations we’re keeping an eye on for Election Day, Part 1: Polling | Stamen
This is a perfect encapsulation of how we’re all feeling: unsettled. The presidential race has been neck-and-neck for months, even before President Biden decided to step off the ticket back in July. A...
stamen.com
October 30, 2024 at 6:09 PM
stamen.com
New on our blog: "Telling the Story of Changing Populations With Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas"

stamen.com/telling-the-...
Telling the Story of Changing Populations With Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas | Stamen
Content in this post comes from our presentation at the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2024 Annual Meeting last week in Tacoma, WA. Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atla...
stamen.com
October 24, 2024 at 5:16 PM
stamen.com
Happy b-day to #OpenStreetMap, the free, volunteer-created map of the world!

We've worked w/ OSM data since the very beginning, and a few years ago we wrote a 2-part history of Stamen's long relationship with OSM:
stamen.com/our-brillian...

Stay tuned for part 3 of the series dropping next week!
A montage of nine colorful maps arrayed in a 3 by 3 grid. Each map is a Stamen project using OpenStreetMap data, styled in a different way. A banner of text on top of the montage reads "Happy 20th birthday OpenStreetMap!" in black Helvetica text on top of a bright yellow banner.
August 9, 2024 at 5:00 PM
stamen.com
New on the blog, a deep dive into using OpenStreetMap data to render highway shields on maps:

"Highway Shields On the Open(StreetMap) Road"

stamen.com/highway-shie...
Highway Shields On the Open(StreetMap) Road | Stamen
Maps are fascinating things that show us a world that is both deeply personal and excitingly unfamiliar. As professional cartographers, we understand the joy of browsing parts of the world where you’v...
stamen.com
August 7, 2024 at 6:49 PM
stamen.com
Sad news. It has come to our attention that the NOAA weather station moored at 0º, 0º (nicknamed "Null Island Buoy") no longer exists! Check out the update at the end of @mappingmashups.bsky.social's Null Island blog post for more details of the buoy's untimely demise.

stamen.com/the-many-liv...
A drawing of the "Null Island Buoy" on a tombstone floating in the ocean. The text on the tombstone says "R. I. P. Null Island Buoy 1998-2021"
August 1, 2024 at 6:25 PM
stamen.com
Now on the blog: "The Many Lives of Null Island", by Stamen Lead Cartographer @mappingmashups.bsky.social

stamen.com/the-many-liv...
Designing an Easter Egg (such as Null Island)... ...is a balance of exclusivity and accessibility, of form versus function. An Easter Egg should be a surprise, a treat, and it should make someone a bit proud of themselves when they find it. It’s not much fun if it’s too hard to find, but if it’s too big and too obvious, it loses all of its charm.
July 23, 2024 at 6:07 PM