Beautiful visualisation tool transforms maps into works of art

Stamen maps, the second stage of the City Tracking project funded by the Knight News Challenge has just been released for public use. This installment consists of three beautifully intricate mapping styles, which use OpenStreetMap data to display any area of the world* in a new and highly stylised layout. Take a look at each of the designs below. You can click and drag the maps to view other locations. Watercolor Chief designers: Geraldine Sarmiento , Zach Watson The "watercolor" style uses smooth edges and has a very hand-made feel to it. It might not be particularly well-suited to navigation, but what it loses in practicality it makes up for in aesthetics. Toner Chief designers: Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso , Geraldine Sarmiento "Toner" goes for a much more minimalist approach and is entirely monochrome. Details such as the cartoon train-track style representation of railway lines are a nice touch. Terrain Chief designer: Mike Migurski While similar to its Google Maps-based namesake, Stamen's "terrain" deviates from the original through both its open-source nature and certain design tweaks such as the greater prominence of greenery. If you would like to read more about how the maps were created and how you can use them in your own work, America's Public Broadcasting Service has posted on Stamen's work here . * The "terrain" style is only available for locations within the US NEW! Buy our book • Facts are Sacred: the power of data (on Kindle) More open data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at [email protected] • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Like us on Facebook