Days at award winning Axis Maps in Hewitt, Texas, are spent creating “custom cartography for the digital age.” For 10 years, this small company’s employees have been doing exceptional work combining their expertise in the traditions of cartography with innovative interactive media. Now they’ve added an artistic endeavor to their list of accomplishments—city maps created entirely with type fonts.

For Mark Harrower, Ph.D., Ben Sheesley, Ph.D. and Andy Woodruff, like many creative people, there comes a time when an idea just has to be followed–for the pleasure of the work and the love of the project. That time came for them when Andy decided to expand on a concept he had used for a party announcement. The project just took on a life of its own. After almost two years, maps of Chicago and Boston are now finished.

The guys at Axis Maps say of their Typographic Maps, “Created as a labor of love, these unique maps accurately depict the streets and highways, parks, neighborhoods, coastlines, and physical features of the city using nothing but type. Only by manually weaving together thousands upon thousands of carefully placed words does the full picture of the city emerge. Every single piece of type was manually placed, a process that took hundreds of hours to complete for each map.”

More maps to come—San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C. are next. Can’t wait to see the streets of the nation’s capital.

(Source)

Creative Gratitude and Giving

“There are all kinds of stats of use to all kinds of people. These are stats for the humanitarian and social conscious among the masses. These stats let us know how we are doing and to appreciate what we have. And they motivate us to find new avenues to give. Everything we have of value in life and every advantage has been hard won by those before us,” shares Cynthia, a 53 year old woman from Kansas, commenting on StumbleUpon.com about the eye-opening and mind-blowing social awareness statistics in the above graphic.

“I appreciate it, and teach and share it daily. I give by teaching, and teaching hands on, I’ve taught people and youth my trades, Printing, Graphic Arts, and Digital Music Composing. Yes I promote myself and others in the creative, as nothing gives the downtrodden more will to survive and accomplish than what they can produce with their own hands and intelligence. Make your how to videos, they will get to the furthest and poorest reaches of this earth if you can not give monetarily. Teachers and humanitarians are already everywhere teaching and using these videos. To inspire is a great way to give.”

In 2002, fourteen year old William Kamkwamba was a normal schoolboy living in anything but normal times in a country ruled by poverty, starvation and death. While his country held a strong belief in magic, William became an inventor excited by the unknown wonders of science. His country of Malawi, in Africa, was in the midst of a devastating and deadly drought that threatened the very lives of his family and fellow villagers. He was forced by his father’s lack of funds to quit school and do whatever he could to help his family survive.

William Kamkwamba (Credit)

The Inspiration

Even with the loss of his education, William kept returning to the small library he had grown to love, where he read and reread old science books that were mostly ignored by others. One book with a windmill on its cover captured William’s imagination.

William’s Windmill Diagram

The Challenge

What if he could build a windmill to bring electricity to his house and eventually irrigation to water his family’s crops? Could he find enough parts to build such a machine? He was certain that he could devise a windmill if he could only find enough castoff bits and pieces to put it all together. Yes, that was the challenge, to scrounge and beg for anything he could repurpose to reach his final goal.

Malawi Villagers gaze in wonder at William’s creation (Credit)

It was not easy. To push forward when all around him was disbelief and scoffing at the very idea that a young boy could accomplish such a task. William also faced his own fear.  Fear he would lose his inspiration, his determination and his dreams.

The Victory

William’s first windmill produced only twelve volts and lit up four lights, but it was like a miracle. Encouraged by his initial success, he learned more and brought to life a machine that produced enough water to irrigate his family’s garden.

William atop his second windmill (Credit)

News of his amazing solution to a desperate situation quickly spread. His “electric wind” caught the imagination of the people of Malawi and the world beyond Africa. He was asked to travel across the world and tell his story. In 2009, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, his book co-authored with Bryan Mealer was published.

“William Kamkwamba is an alchemist who turned misfortune into opportunity, opportunity beyond his own. The book is about learning by inventing. William’s genius was to be ingenious,” so said Nicholas Negroponte, founder, MIT Media Lab; founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child in praise of Williams work and his book.

Ongoing Victories

Today, William writes, speaks and works to help educate the children of his Malawi home through his buildOn.org foundation which is working hard to rebuild the school buildings and offer a new school home for over 1480 students. He also is fundraising for many other projects to help Malawi through the Moving Windmills Project. Donations are taken on both sites listed above.

Watch the Documentary on William’s Story

Purchase  William’s Book