prettymaps (dc/baltimore) by Aaron Straup Cope
8"x10" ($20) | 11"x14" ($50) | 16"x20" ($200) | 30"x40" ($2000)

prettymaps (boston) by Aaron Straup Cope
10"x8" ($20) | 14"x11" ($50) | 20"x16" ($200) | 40"x30" ($2000)

prettymaps (dallas/fort worth) by Aaron Straup Cope
8"x10" ($20) | 11"x14" ($50) | 16"x20" ($200) | 30"x40" ($2000)

prettymaps (chicago) by Aaron Straup Cope
10"x8" ($20) | 14"x11" ($50) | 20"x16" ($200) | 40"x30" ($2000)

Whoa-we're-barreling-towards-the-holidays-mighty-quick greetings, collectors! Bringing us even closer, faster, is this abbreviated week—we're T-minus a coupla days away from the first bout of harrowing holiday travel and the boarding of planes, trains and automobiles to celebrate T-giving with friends and family afar. In honor of wherever you might be bound, we're unleashing another set of prettymaps from Aaron Straup Cope and Stamen Design, covering the territories that sprawl from cities across the U.S. of A: dc/baltimore, boston, dallas/fort worth and chicago.

Hot on the heels of the MoMA exhibition Talk to Me, which featured prettymaps earlier this year, these fair four also follow up the already released editions of nyc, la, sfba and paris prints. MoMA featured Manhattan* along with Beijing and Tokyo, but we're staying closer to the homefront—for now! More international destinations coming soon—favoring the places we know a little more intimately. (Though, that's up for debate; I'll be the first to admit that Dallas/Ft. Worth is as foreign to me as the far reaches of the Faroes.)

Dizzying and data-licious, Aaron's maps are the product of enormous amount of freely available info streamed from sources around the web. The nitty-gritty details of just how they were created can be found on the prettymaps site, and among the plethora of blogs that hopped on the story as soon as the maps came out. Though Open Source Maps is indeed a source for these, they're not made for navigating. But, they sure are nice to look at. Among the pinks, yellows and oranges, orienting yourself in the cities you do know is an immersive, instantaneous pleasure. In the ones that you don't know, the palette keeps the secrets of those unknown territories. But fear not, if you're ever lost, home is always where the he(art) is.

— Sara

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*MoMA also cleverly charts how all the works featured in the exhibition connect to one another, but one thing they didn't link was all the 20x200 artists included in the show: namely Stefanie Posavec and Matt Jones. We're mighty proud of all three.

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