When I created my first uniquely colored river basin maps in 2016 and posted them on an image-sharing site, they became such a hit that I eventually decided to leave my nine-to-five job behind to try and make a living from my new passion. Since then, my artistic watershed maps have been featured on the pages of CNN, BBC, Atlas Obscura, Smithsonian Magazine, and more than a hundred other newspapers and news sites.

I call my small business Grasshopper Geography, "grasshopper" being my nickname in school, and not only sell my maps online but provide them free for NGOs worldwide. Volunteering is also a great part of my story, I already worked years for different NGOs, where my mapmaking skills were greatly appreciated: with marine biologists in Alaska, archeologists in the Caribbean, and an orangutan rehabilitation center in Indonesia amongst others. These days running my small map shop keeps me quite busy, but since my partner in life also became my partner in business, I have more time for creative work: we recently published another set of river basin maps in mild pastel colors that instantly became popular among our patrons.

Showing all permanent and temporary flows, these colorful maps turned out to be great conversation starters, as they demonstrate how all of our lands are connected through water.

You can read more about our mission and see all my maps at grasshoppergeography.com. Drop in anytime to say hi!

More info: grasshoppergeography.com