For years I’ve drawn lines. I’ve doodled patterns during lectures, meetings, classes, on the phone and to focus, wind down and ground. These patterns turned into freehand topographical designs not of any real places - just the worlds I created myself. I’m a huge map nerd. To me they represent a merging of art and science. Of the practical world and the creative one.

I decided to try drawing a real place and chose Cache Valley. I pulled up the US Geological Survey national map and projected it onto a poster on the wall, and made what you see here. A unique hand-drawn topographical line map that’s totally accurate and to scale with the actual terrain.

I’ve gone on to create a few locations based here in Utah. If you’d like one of these maps to hang on a wall or wear on a shirt, check out the designs below!

Thanks for supporting my passion,
– Ben Nielsen