MY NEW YORK MAP

FAVOURITE SPOTS AND VINTAGE SHOPS

... and a cinematic twist!

By studioantzee.com

I love New York. Even though I live in Norway, I've been fortunate enough to get the chance to visit New York three times together with my boyfriend. But it's three years since our last visit, and I really miss it! So when I was learning about making maps with code recently, I decided to make a custom map that features a few of our favourite spots in New York.

You can zoom and drag and click like you normally do on a map. There's also a bit of info in the tooltip (the addresses of the vintage shops may change).

(text continues below the map)

ON THE MAP: FAVOURITE SPOTS

Small icon of the heart map marker next to the header.

Many of my favourite places in New York are simply the famous ones! Central Park, The Metropolitan Musem, Chrysler Building (which I absolutely adore because of its Art Deco architecture), High Line, Brooklyn Brigde, and Chelsea Market. I've visited most of these places more than once, but I like to revisit - and sometimes, one discovers something new.

Photo collage with four photos placed on a sheet of vintage-looking ruled paper. The photos have white edges. Motifs from top left: Two skyscrapers seen from below, one of them Chrysler Building with the US flag waving in the wind. The sky covered with grey skies between the two bulidings. — Closeup of colourful padlocks hanging on a bridge fence. — A yellow-red stone floor seen from above, with the viewer's red leather walking shoes, black stockings, and brown pleated tweed skirt peeking out from the bottom of the photo. — A wall display with nine Vogue covers from the 1950s. Each cover features a woman dressed in black and/or white dresses or suits, most of them with hats. Some red details like scarf/belt/handbag/hat. In the right corner is a woman with grey hair tied in a bun. She is wearing a black cardigan and a red scarf.»

ON THE MAP: A COMPANION

Small icon of the Amélie map marker next to the header.

I wanted to do something fun with the travel photos on the trip. So I drew this small paper figure that would come along with us and appear in the photos. The idea is heavily inspired by "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain", a French movie I adore as much as I adore New York. We had photo shoots at Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal, and Chrysler Building (it's not Photoshop!).

Photo collage with four photos placed on a sheet of vintage-looking ruled paper. The photos have white edges. The motif show a paper version of the Amélie map marker, about 15 cm tall. One of them is from when it was cut out, the three others are of the figure 'standing' at Brooklyn Brigde, Central Station, and Chrysler Building.

ON THE MAP: VINTAGE SHOPPING

Small icon of the pin map marker next to the header.

I spent many hours browsing the fabulous vintage and second-hand shops of New York - a good alternative to souvenir shops! I'm sure I missed several gems, but there are a few good ones on the map (Becaon's Closet in Brooklyn is huge, so make sure you have enough time!). The boyfriend found some cool stuff, too. And no, a girl can never have too many scarves.

Photo collage with four photos placed on a sheet of vintage-looking ruled paper. The photos have white edges. The motif all show different vintage or second-hand clothes.

It was also really nice to see more of Brooklyn and Williamsburg when we were vintage hunting there. Walking around is a great way of seeing a city!

Photo collage with four photos placed on a sheet of vintage-looking ruled paper. The photos have white edges. The motif is of different street views: a green wooden house — a red old bike with rusty wheels — the front of an old shiny dark blue Chevrolet with two small US flags on the bumper — a garage covered in a colourful painting and the word 'crash'.

HOW THE MAP WAS MADE / THE NERDY BITS

The base map is made with Leaflet.js. The map layout is a map tile from Mapbox. I tweaked the colours a bit in Mapbox Studio so they slightly resemble the colours in the Amélie movie. Leaflet allows custom markers, so I drew mine in Affinity Designer and exported them as PNGs. The locations and info comes from a csv with a small data set I made. Data loading, assignment + placement of the markers, and text in the tooltip is done with JavaScript.

Text, drawings, web design, photos ©Trud Antzée 2017-2024.

More projects: studioantzee.com