iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Update: leveling the epoxy overflow

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Some maps I've come across in games recently

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Working with a client/employer for sure, good distinction.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Do you feel there's a point where this sort of detail work becomes detrimental? I often get so caught up fixing micro-details like this that the map takes exponentially longer to finish than it "should", and I doubt anyone's noticed even a fraction of them. But I continue for my own peace of mind

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

New map table in progress, hand routed

Unfinished, 5 ft, rectangular wood tabletop with routed design of the Finger Lakes, spanning the width of the table

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Reposted by Aaron Koelker

Nick Parish | Current Flow State Fly Fishing @nickparish.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Big stuff launching tomorrow...

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

It depends on the reader. If they use it to navigate somewhere, or to explain to someone the location of a thing/place in relation to something else in the image, then it's a map. If they just think it is pleasant to look at, then it's a photo.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Getting weird with DEMs and Blender UV mapping

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Wanted to try out the new #StoryMaps Frames, so I made this bite-sized story about whirlpools. arcg.is/CD0uP2

arcg.is

Maelstroms

Whirlpools Around the World

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Reposted by Aaron Koelker

Daniel Huffman @pinakographos.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I am also celebrating by finally organizing my #cyanotype misprints and having another one of my irregularly-scheduled "pay what you want" sales. Please consider giving a home to one of these less-than-perfect hand-printed pieces. Some have scorch marks! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A detail image of two cyanotype maps of Lebanon. One is darker than the other and has some browning on the bottom.

An image of a cyanotype of the Seven Summits. Some of the text is dark and blurred and difficult to read.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Perhaps it can just be an amusing distraction from all the physical exhaustion, then

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Thanks! It was actually harder than expected to find those kinds of things, and I ended up putting my own list together based on various articles, interviews, documentaries, etc. Hopefully they're actually meaningful to runners!

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Shockingly, nobody took me up on running the #BostonMarathon with this thing strapped to their wrist

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Currently obsessing over this 12 ft wide, 1921 strip #map of Palisades Interstate Park in NJ/NY. An amazingly detailed birds-eye view paired with a profile sketch of the park's cliffs, as seen from the Hudson River. collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/coll...

Close-up of Palisades Interstate Park sketch map by Robert. L. Dickinson

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

A quick and dirty map I made of the federal lease cancellations announced by DOGE so far. Data from DOGE's website on 3/14/25.

A blue and grey map of the United States and territories showing the number and location of federal lease cancellations, using proportional circles and number labels.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

A few months ago, I made this #StoryMap about glacial relicts and refugia, with a look inspired by botanical field journals. It was a fun side-project to reseach and create. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9b04...

storymaps.arcgis.com

Glacial Gardens

Relicts, Refugia, and Preserving Biodiversity

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

A particularly tricky round of Cartographer's Tetris

A map of Long Island NY with green labels and markers over orange land. The labels are dense and often curved to fit.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Will v1 or the NES book ever be reprinted?

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Nice, love that title text and the landing callouts!

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Nice! I have an Arduino lying around somewhere, this makes me want to dig it out again try building something.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

That's so cool. Is it running with something like an Arduino or Rasberri Pi inside?

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Thanks! Mostly by hand on an iPad, yes. I wrote about it a bit on my website: aaronkoelker.com/taughannock-...

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I recall iterating over bands with arcpy/python once, but not sure about model builder. ArcGIS Pro has an Extract Bands tool that might work for that, though

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Maps.com is doing a new series on the mapmaking process and asked me to talk about my map of map turtles. I also recommend the first entry with @peterincan.bsky.social and his awesome wildfire map. www.maps.com/behind-the-m...

maps.com

Behind the Map | Maps.com

Get insights into the mapmaking process and hear directly from cartographers and creators who share the how and why behind some of our favorite maps.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Same! I've been enjoying finding all the different ones on walls and such too, there's quite a variety of styles

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Love this, are the yellow areas the vineyards?

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

And there's Bluesky's max vertical image ratio for previews...

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Recently updated this map for a watershed non-profit group to be vertical instead of horizontal. The original use-case was for tabling events, so we'd made it wide to get more of the map closer to the reader and save them from having to lean forward. The new layout is for signboards at boat ramps.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

This was made to support a project on glacial refugia, explaining how the landscape and climate have shifted over time as ice sheets advanced and retreated

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Thanks! You sent me down a little rabbit hole on YouTube, neat stuff

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Thanks! It can be pretty stark in places. Places like Bloomington it even shows up clear on the aerial imagery, neat to see

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Was this in the NACIS map gallery last year? If so I remember staring at it for quite some time. Awesome work!

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

This animation I made for a recent project shows the changes in ice extent over North America since the last glacial maximum (roughly 18k years). Each frame was hand drawn using Procreate.

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Reposted by Aaron Koelker

Atlas of Design @nacis-atlas.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Share the joy of maps with a gift of the Atlas of Design! And why not donate a copy to your local library, school, or book drive? All volumes of the Atlas are now available to ship, including the recently released Volume 7. atlasofdesign.org/order/

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Interesting, I could see that especially for movies that are so bad they're funny

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Sounds interesting, I look forward to reading that!

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and for me it's the usage that decides. I can take a mitten and use it to explain to someone the relative location of a place in Michigan. In that moment it's a map, though we'd never call it one otherwise.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Oh man, I love that first one! Eyvind Earle tree vibes

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

This is great. I've been playing around making some strip/ribbon maps myself recently, but for the most part I'm arranging them manually. This is a pretty cool approach!

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

(Maybe you're talking about somewhere else, but...) It should be in the Social Icons block now. I know because I've been waiting and checking for months lol. Maybe just need to update your Wordpress?

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Hello! I make maps and post about them

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Hello! I make maps and post about them.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

Happy Halloween. Here's a map I did several years ago of cemeteries and graveyards within Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Fun fact: the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard is that the latter is typically associated with a church.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

This is a #map (?) I drew of Taughannock Gorge in upstate NY. I designed it specifically with a #risograph machine in mind, and printed it out at a community print space here in town. Excited to try out some other ideas there.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 16/07/2024

Since videos don't work here yet: Here's a link to another 10ft receipt map I made of the Boston Marathon. It's contained in an enduro route sheet holder so that, theoretically, someone could awkwardly reference this on their wrist while as race. aaronkoelker.com/boston-marat...

aaronkoelker.com

BOSTON MARATHON – Aaron Koelker

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 23/06/2024

Working out another receipt map project idea

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 30/05/2024

Experimenting with a hand-drawn approach

A post-card sized map of the Great Lakes. Water is in blue with green outlines around the shore. Urban areas are shown in orange, and cities are shown with black circles and labels. The style mimics a rough risograph print, with some printing misalignment and imperfections.

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Aaron Koelker @aaronkoelker.bsky.social · 24/05/2024

I talk a little bit about it at the end of this post aaronkoelker.com/waterfalls-o... . For this one I used QGIS, Procreate (iPad), and Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator. But alternative software could do all the same things.

aaronkoelker.com

WATERFALLS OF ITHACA – Aaron Koelker

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