06: Map Making

Illustration 1: Map Making ©thesmarti

Moving to new places is always exciting (sometimes overwhelming) exercise in navigation. My small trick is to move in concentric circles, slowly expanding outward within the vicinity of our apartment. Eventually, I figure out most of the city and then I start finding shortcuts, or extra neighborhood pockets. These are the moments where the city folds in on itself and the layout finally lands in my head. That’s when I like to make my own map of where we live. It’s fun to test my navigation skills and compare what I think I know to what is actually there.

Every place we’ve moved, I’ve made a map. Most of the time it’s just for myself. But lately, I’ve been more excited to make them to share with friends and family who are visiting. My first year in Copenhagen I made a small neighborhood map for a QR code tour of Nørrebro - where I live. The second year I’ve made a bigger map of the city with the neighborhoods I think matter the most. (Expanding outward - it’s a theme.)

Map making is a fun way to learn the history of a city, too. It gives me a chance to find out the stories behind street names, neighborhoods, businesses. I sometimes take in a sampling of local tours (free and paid) until walking through the city makes sense. I definitely borrow local books from the library to learn historical anecdotes / monument facts / culture tips, etc. Then I'm bursting with small stories when visitors come around.

Illustrated map reference

Photos from Left to Right: 1) illustrated inner Copenhagen map reference, 2) stack of books from the library to start my Copenhagen research, 3) small drafted outline of the city ©thesmarti

Creating a map outline is the hardest part. I'm no cartographer, so I rely heavily on Google Maps. I used it as a reference in light opacity in my design files to get the city proportions right. Then, I start adding in the color blocks for land and water. Afterwards, it's a style choice to design the streets, add in monuments, etc. Eventually I remove the Google Map reference. And because my maps are not meant to be perfect, I have a lot of flexibility here to change the proportions or layouts to accommodate my aesthetic preferences.

I talked to a lot of people about cool areas and then I collate it into a list of hot locations. Everyone has their favorite parts, and I love hearing different opinions. For most of my maps though I tend to stick to the tourist landmarks , and then I sneak in a couple of the top local spots as well as my personal favorites.

Photo: 4 Layout ideas for the frontside map and the backside facts for my Copenhagen map, as well as illustrated research. @thesmarti

In my last Copenhagen map, I ran into issues with my location illustrations obscuring the street names. I wanted the illustrations to help orient the user, but I didn't want the illustrations to take precedence over the winding streets. I found a compromise by making the illustrations smaller and putting them on clear backgrounds as pngs. It really killed me to minimize them since the image just won't condense as sharply. But sometimes you have to sacrifice the details to make the map readable.

Illustration 2: Towers of Copenhagen ©thesmarti

And then, of course, I love a smart fold in a map. For the Nørrebro QR code hunt, I made the map fold open into a perfect pop-up display. It was easy to see and perfectly compact. A tidy package! So I knew I wanted something similar for this map. I played around with several different iterations from Pinterest before settling on a diamond twist fold. It required a little finesse to open it neatly, but the result is just as charming.

Photo 5: From left to right, start to finish - first drafts, to folding patterns, and final print. Voila! My Copenhagen map.

Map-making in general is a never-ending process. A city is always changing in small ways: businesses open or close, bicycle paths are added, construction goes up, etc. So there is always something to tweak. Sometimes I lose interest in the map file and just leave it as a testament to what the city looked like when I lived there. Otherwise, I just keep changing the “last edited Month/Year” fine print at the bottom of the map and in the file name to keep it up to date.

Getting lost in a city can be wonderful. For me, its inevitable. So map-making feels like a proactive way to enjoy getting lost.

Happy map-making!

smarti

05: Tea Cards

Illustration: Tea Cards a snail mail story @smartigraphicdesign

Paper and pen has a way of elevating ordinary moments through nostalgic snail mail. As a military brat, cards, letters and stamps all had a way of keeping me tethered to the people I loved. So for a couple of years in a row, I've set aside time and energy to draw out a card, write a letter and slip a little bag of tea inside. I called them Tea Cards.

I typically sent them out during the lull months in the springtime when no one expects a missive. The surprise really gets people. Take that, conformity! I would often receive a phone call/whatsapp message in response. Sometimes I even got a letter back. For sure, my parents would hear about how so-and-so got their tea card and how the gesture was appreciated. I liked the idea that it was a little bit of love glowing in their hands. Here's a short montage of the different tea cards I've sent:

Photo Tea Card Montage @smartigraphicdesign

I took a break during corona years because my social circle contracted and I needed a bit of a pause from internal pressures. But I've been meaning to bring back the tradition and so I'm reminding myself of how it all comes together. Maybe it will also inspire you?

Hunt Out a Tea

It doesn't have to be a tea. But I like sending something like a small pouch of tea that will have a whole ritual behind it - boil water, steep the sachet, smell the aroma, pour, sip, etc. It's an act of slowing down that involves all the senses. And at the very least, it can be easily composted in case your recipients don't like the chosen tea. For that reason, I normally choose an herbal infusion. Earthy, fragrant, calming. I always make sure it has a little paper envelope surrounding it to help retain the tea's potency while it travels.

Doodle Designs

Don't overthink this part, sometimes it's just a color that matches the tea, or a poem that springs to mind. One year Abuela taught me to embroider so I made a mock embroidered design for the tea card. Something joyful with small patterns or details that can bring extra delight when repurposed for stickers or envelope edging.

Print Card, Sticker and Envelope

I hunt out companies locally that can print my designs. Lately, I've been using noissue for their eco-based printing services - recycled paper and soy-based inks. I want my tea cards to bring ephemeral compostable cheer, not everlasting waste.

Photos Left to Right: (1) Layout of 2017 envelope/card/sticker detail, (2) Closeup of 2019 embroidery work that inspired a tea card. @smartigraphicdesign

Block Off Time

After a quick assembly line packing the cards, I stack them up and plan to block off time from my schedule. It typically takes me 10min to write a card because my handwriting is small and I like to fill up a card so that it takes at least a couple of minutes to read - enough to legitimize a cup of tea. Sometimes I plan to do one card a day as a morning warm-up. Sometimes I plan to do cards for one full evening every week. Once, I took them on a long overseas flight starting to write at plane taxi-ed and finishing them all just as the plane landed.

Write a Master Card and Brainstorm Non-Sequitors

A trick to getting the brain flowing is that I write a master card to my snarkiest friend. Oooh how my pen flows when I write to them! So I give the whole update on the biggest, the latest, the greatest ups and downs of the past year or so. Most of the time, the master card feature the overly touted highlights of the year.

And then I brainstorm a bunch of non-sequitor ideas - all the other things that I've been saving up. Philosophi-silliness. I share the moments that made me question life, the thoughts that made me laugh, the things I got to witness, the fights and mental hang-ups that I'm working through. It helps to flip through recent notebooks and see where my brain has taken me.

And then I write each person individually. Sometimes they get a version of the master card. Sometimes they get a little piece of my soul. Either way, I try to make it as personal as I can and connect as best as I can. Every relationship is different, so I try to honor that.

Mail & Rest

Once I've written out a nice pack, I like to send it out old-school through a post box. Hunting out postage stamps and post-boxes has become a lot harder the last couple of years as more and more old-school things become outdated, elusive and (wah-wah) digital. And yet, I've still managed to eke them out! Sometimes I think that sending out regular mail is a fight against the laws of modernity.

I know that mail is a lost art, and very few people keep up the practice - and I know that it's a privilege because life is busy for so many people. Even I've lost touch from time to time! But it's always nice to get back into the act of writing and share it in the charm of a tea card.

Happy snail-mailing!

smarti

04: Making a Treasure Hunt Part 2 of 2

Illustration: Making a Treasure Hunt Part 2 @smartigraphicdesign

Last month, I shared about how I start my treasure hunt projects. I covered making a map, identifying hot spots, listing out themes, brainstorming challenges and testing clues and challenges for robustness. That's normally a joyful ride of creation. Now, I'll be sharing how I finish my treasure hunt projects by bringing everything under the same visual tent with graphic design skills, printing, assembling and setting it up for my lucky participants. This is when the project phase gets a little technical and sometimes tedious leading up to the final confetti throw. But hang in there, the ride at the end will be worth it. Here's what's left:

6) choose branding style, colors and illustrations

7) level up all of the challenges with branding (*this part takes the longest)

8) print

9) assemble

10) deliver and let them enjoy

+) if you are feeling encouraged, tweak and reset for others to play

6. CHOOSE BRANDING DETAILS

Branding is a special place where the character of a project becomes tangible. Certain style, colors, illustrations, logos, patterns, and motifs will fit with the hunt and the participants. I take the theme and look at natural colors from photographs of the route. Sometimes these design choices just pop up naturally. Sometimes it's a mix and match of fun combinations.

Buenos Aires was a quirky walk through several neighborhoods, so I used a pattern of pink, white and yellow colored dots to designate different spaces with clean bold type. Paris was a magic exploration for young children, so it was a monochromatic blue theme with gritty black and white pencil drawings. For the last treasure hunt that I made in Copenhagen, I combined an old Scandinavian typography with some playfully bright drawings of the Hans Christian Andersen stories.

Here are some questions I consider:

What kind of personality does the hunt have? determines color, voice

What things are identified with this particular hunt? determines motifs, typography

How is this hunt different from others? determines patterns, special logo

branding treasure hunts © thesmarti

7. LEVEL UP CHALLENGES WITH BRANDING

Take all of the differently designed pieces and set them up together in the same design space. I like to make a giant master Adobe Illustrator file and drop all my assets there - logo, patterns, colors, motifs, typography choices. Then I make a separate Adobe Illustrator file with A3 pages with all the measured little clue pieces, envelopes, boxes and extras. Since I do double-sided printing, I make sure that the pages all have the same grid and match up pages in pairs so that they print seamlessly. Note to self: remember to give a little bleed extension to make sure the pattern or color doesn't get cut off.

Sometimes it is easiest to blanket everything under the same color and then start differentiating from there. If all the clues are used on the same day, then I make everything uniform. But if the treasure hunt has multiple days, I like to give every day a little different coloring so that the distinction is easy to see.

8. PRINT

In this process, some clues will need to be reset because the printing process will change them - either because the paper becomes thicker, or the quality no longer works. Because clue-making is a tangible process, you won't know until you print it out. So I normally go to the printers and print and test out the design in batches to make sure it still works.

It takes a couple of visits to the printers to get this part right. I always forget this and have a moment where I go to the printers and think I've finally figured it out and become a genius level designer! But then my eye will scan and see small design mistakes and I'll have to go back to print. With flexible printers I know, I will just stay nearby and go back and forth printing different stages. If not, I'll do it in batches over a week until I have everything. I always have to remind myself to celebrate the small wins as I go along. Ah, silly me.

Photo 1: Scissors and tape in the assembly of the Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 clues.

9. ASSEMBLE

Cut, fold, bind, paste, set, slide. Get crafty. This is the adult version of the 4th grade. Use your cutting mat. Bring out your tools. Wear safety googles. Make all the things come to life.

If I'm honest, all the stages of leveling up, printing, assembling happen in overlap. There are some pieces that will come together sooner. Anyway, take joy in the crafting stage of the assembly. It really is joyous to bring something from scribbled idea into real life. Get in it!

Photo 2: Layout of the clues in day color coordination for Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 © thesmarti

10. DELIVER AND LET PARTICIPANTS ENJOY

Once assembled, set them up for display. There are a variety of ways to do this - wreaths, cubby holes, display boxes, baskets, hanging photos. In some cases, displaying won't be necessary because the hunt might be a hidden process. But I'm a visual person and I normally make these for younger people, so leaving the visual interest in the open hypes up the experience. It also makes it more visually accessible and pleasurable for everyone. Note to self, remember to take a lot of photographs to congratulate yourself on the creation phase, because as people play, the clues will get broken into and naturally wear out.

I like to make a one-page introduction and directions to start the treasure hunt. This is helpful for the participants so that they can get a first briefing to quell the initial questions that percolate. Then it serves as a refreshing re-read at anytime to re-orient the participant. It's a very useful tool because the start of a treasure hunt is often nebulous. It only takes shape and make sense as participants start to solve challenges. Frankly, an introduction/direction letter also serves double purpose as it takes the pressure off of the maker to be omniscient or present during the hunt. Then (if you want to) the hunt can stand independently.

Which brings me to my next point - with adults, I do not participate alongside. But with little ones, I often join for the ride. And it is the greatest challenge to decide when to help and when to let them figure it out. My niece and nephew know this and they milk me for hints or suggestions. What can I say? I love these kiddos. As they grow up, I'm learning to just provide encouragement.

In every hunt, I'm surprised by how the challenges/clues play out. Things that "tested" as easy, can sometimes stump other people. And then sometimes the other way around - things that took me forever to create and figure out, are solved in seconds! It's never the same hunt, no matter who plays. I chalk it all up to different range of intelligences and capacities. It's always a joy to see it unfold.

Photo 3: Display case for the some of the Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 clues and tokens © thesmarti

+) TWEAK

This next stage is just a suggestion, because it's not for everyone. But if you are feeling encouraged, tweak the clues, reset and let new participants play. The treasure hunts that I make are typically very personal, so I don't re-use them. But there's a possibility there to make them more generic for the masses. Depends on what your purpose is.

One thing is for sure - crafting a treasure hunt is a head game. You have to be crazy enough to build something unknown, dreaming it up in your head, breaking down the little defaults that'll trip up the journey, taking the time to do all the little things to smooth it all out and make it work. Even with all the testing, some little part will fail.

Maybe a more genius person could build it better and faster, but I think I do alright as a creative. Half the time I have to convince myself to make it smaller, easier and with fewer parts. But it's nice to honor my inner child, and build up the challenging puzzles and games that I want to share with others. My hope is that I'm gifting a worthwhile adventure!

Happy treasure-hunt-making,

smarti