MENU

Celebrating 75 Years of Iconic Design. Good Design® online submissions are open.

GRAPHIC DESIGN 2017

Follow us

Least Distorted Equal Area World Map 2016


Least Distorted Equal Area World Map 2016
Least Distorted Equal Area World Map 2016

Designers: Abbass Bazeghi, Bazeghi Architect, Goleta, California, USA
Client: Bazeghi Architect, Goleta, California, USA


Least Distorted Equal Area World Map 2016

Project Description

The submitted design is a geometrically precise equal area map of the world. Its area is 99.9999999% accurate or ± 1 square kilometer per 1.5 million square kilometers. The uniqueness of this world map design is the interruption along political lines to make it possible to see the actual shape and size of Russia and China, which are presented with extreme distortion in commonly used world map projections. All parts of the world are true to shape and scale. It is one of the easiest world maps to comprehend especially around the Polar Regions. The overall shape is organic and indicative of the surface of a sphere. Even a child can visualize how this map may fold, in the mind’s eye, into a spherical globe. 

World map designs have continued for over 400 years and there are over 250 world map projections that have been invented and introduced during this time. However, the most commonly used world maps, in the USA, are based on only two designs: the Mercator and the Robinson projections. There are four basic characteristics of a map that are distorted to some degree, depending on the map projection used. These characteristics include distance, direction, shape, and area. So, for example, on the Mercator projection, Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger relative to land masses near the equator than they actually are. 

This world map design solves the problem of extreme distortions in commonly used world maps. The shape of all nations, land masses and waters are presented with the least amount of distortion in this projection. The areas are extremely precise.