This is my own illustrated version of Madrid, the city I've been living in for more than a decade. The map started as a commission for the City Council itself, for the 2016 Chinese New Year local celebrations, but it has a somewhat larger and beautiful story.
Above, the final director's-cut version of the map. You can actually purchase a large format fine art gliclée print of this by contacting me, if you like it enough for that.
Below, some highlights and details.
Complete with some local gimmicks such as Esperanza Aguirre's car wrongly parked at Callao and Monseñor Rouco Varela having himself a lil' blunt in his attic.
Yes, that's a river of apples. Manzanares, the name of Madrid's modest river, is Spanish for "apple trees".
Another local gimmick, the neverending traffic jam at the A6 highway. Price you pay for living in the richest suburbs.
The commission version of the map was quite different, mainly because the areas where the celebrations were held needed to be highlighted with some real streetmap zooms. As I had such short time for drawing the piece, I did'nt draw the parts below the streetmaps, which I promised myself I would do later on.
Below, the brochure with the celebration program in which my map was inserted. The cover artwork is by the almighty Bakea, and the graphic design by a studio called E Hijos.
The full-size brochure version of the map. When I started working, they still didn't know the actual size of the brochure,
so they told me "yeah just do it DIN-A3 size". Yep, waaaay too big. They actually had to crop it.
And this is where the story gets beautiful. I promised myself I would finish the gaps in the map, but there's nothing like having a deadline to get things done.
In a few months I had a wedding for which I had no present yet in mind, so I thought why not printing them the finished map (they met and have always lived here in Madrid) marking all the spots where they've had a home, be it alone or together. Also, on the burgundy color frame I added the distance in kilometers to their hometowns and the little village in which the wedding was held.
So, as an epilogue to this story, meet Sandra and Armando hangovered in their first day of wed life.
