EARTH Platinum Edition The World's Largest Atlas

“An outstanding milestone in publishing at 6ft x 4.5ft (1.8m x 1.4m), this exquisite book is unsurpassed in size, quality, and detail. A showcase of the craftsmanship of more than 100 international cartographers, geographers and photographers.

Specifications

• Total collection limited to thirty-one individually numbered copies

• 6 feet × 4.5 feet (1.8m × 1.4m)

• Earth Platinum ISBN 978-1-921811-11-1

• 128 pages, portrait

• More than 45 pages of the finest contemporary maps

• Cost $100,000 USD

 

Once in a lifetime, the opportunity comes along to acquire something truly exquisite and unique—a piece of history, a rare collectible, a masterpiece... EARTH Platinum Edition is such an acquisition. With only 31 individually numbered copies of this immense, limited edition atlas available, this beautifully presented book will be sought after by fine institutions and discerning collectors. Superb cartography is displayed on the massive pages when opened: each spread measures a breathtaking 6 feet x 9 feet (1.8m x 2.7m), presenting an unsurpassed view of the world. Every step required to produce this exclusive atlas has challenged existing processes, and the exacting standards of quality and presentation expected by Millennium House have contributed to the development of improved techniques and demanded the finest craftsmanship.

EARTH Platinum Edition is destined to become a prized reference and a focal point of the world's major libraries and repositories.”

http://www.millenniumhouse.com.au/title-earth-plat.html

 

“This particular map shows your passion for cartography and any praise given to you is well earned.  It has been a true pleasure to have you work on this project, without your skills it would not have been possible in the short time we had left to complete this incredible
project.”
- Craig MacAlpine, Geographx

 

“We would like to do the whole book with you. Sadly we don’t have the time.  You don’t have a twin?”
- Gordon Cheers, Managing Director  at Millennium House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The brief

 

1. The maps went through the following processes before the clean-up phase:

2. Type labels and symbology for each map are extracted, projected and exported from the central geodatabase using Maplex and imported  into an Illustrator page template.

3. A number of scripts are run for character and symbol replacements

4. The marginalia and the linework are added

5. A projected raster scan of an earlier Millennium map is then added to provide a base reference for clean-up team

 

>   This is where I stepped in for clean-up

 

1. Following clean-up, the scanned raster is removed and replaced with the proper raster relief map (created at Geographx)

2. Checks are run and a 1st draft pdf is created which goes back to Millennium House, where the editors mark it up for corrections.

3. The marked-up pdf goes, together with the Illustrator file, to those charged with implementing corrections (that's me).  The cartographer corrects the Illustrator file and notes anything he/she finds that needs to be brought to the MH editor’s attention.

 

>   This is where I stepped in for corrections

 

1. This editing/correction process will go through at least 2 iterations.

2. The files then go back to Geographx for last minute checks on formatting, colour profiles etc.  All the Gaz_IDs are exported so that the Gazette can be created.

3. A press quality file is created and sent off for final proofing and printing.

 

I was part of both the clean-up and corrections team during the Earth Platinum project.

 

The clean-up team are primarily tasked with turning a computer generated product into something worthwhile.  They look at label placement and also the labels that Maplex has placed as opposed to unplaced.