Amsterdam

The print

Amsterdam came after London, the third of the maps. I spent some time in the city before making it — walking mostly, along the canals and back again — and I have been back several times since. It is the atmosphere of the place that stayed with me rather than any one building.

The canals gave me the structure. They ring the centre in arcs, so I used them as a grid and set the type along them, letting the lettering bend with the water instead of sitting in rows. Once that was decided the rest of the layout followed.

I kept the naming light. A few places worth pointing at rather than every street. I did not want to overload it, and the map reads better with air in it. More on how the type and the empty space work across the series is on About the maps.

The edition

Printed on a large press, on high quality acid-free archival paper, at roughly 102 × 116cm. The edition is 300, which is a big one for me and was deliberate — I wanted to keep the price down. Signed and numbered in pencil, packed flat between boards and sent tracked.

It is the map most people start with. London is the earlier two-colour one; Berlin is the same idea taken as far as I could take it.

A lot of these have gone out over the years, and people send me photographs of them framed on walls I will never see. If you do, send one over — I like knowing where they end up, and I put them up now and then.