Creating a new “Standard”

A custom designer map

By: Saman Bemel-Benrud

Introducing Standard, a retro inspired map ready to be used for planning road trips, telling location-based stories, or added to Mapbox Studio for you to customize and make your own.

Inspiration

While designing Standard, I was inspired by early 20th-century automotive maps. Beginning in the 1910s, companies like Standard Oil offered free promotional road maps at gas stations.

Here’s an example of one of those Standard Oil maps, courtesy The Rumsey Collection:

Simple saturated colors, dense road and place labeling, and charming, low-fidelity printing techniques gave the maps a distinct aesthetic. With Standard, I’ve taken that basic formula and updated it for modern times.

Detailed textures

In order to capture that vintage map look, Standard relies on repeating dot patterns with subtle variations. You can make these same types of custom textures on your own Studio map by dragging and dropping any SVG into the browser window.

Customization

Standard is yours to customize. Add it to your studio account, and change the colors, textures, fonts, and highway shields to fit your style. Show us what you design by sharing it with us on Twitter using the hashtag #BuiltWithMapbox!

Saman Bemel Benrud

Creating a new “Standard” was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.