Maps can help us navigate, explore communities and make sense of the world, but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring – in fact, the best map design can be worthy of a gallery wall or a coffee table book, up there with the best design books.
We rely on mapping all the time, whether on our phones (there was a map pinning function on Vodafone’s Glastonbury app for 2024), as a souvenir, or a trusty Ordnance Survey layout for a hike. For hundreds of years, map design has been not just a useful skill, but a creative art. So we've put together this list of the coolest maps around, complete with commentary from experts in the field.
