I Create Fictional Maps That Honour Nature, Animals And Extraordinary People
I’m a graphic artist living in Aarhus, Denmark and I’m the creative half of a design duo called DAU-DAW. I grew up in the countryside where I developed a great love for both nature and animals – all of which are reflected in my work below. I spend everything between a few weeks and 6 months creating each of these little worlds.
The “maps” are all divided into different countries and every mountain, every lake, every city and every ocean in these pieces are named after everything relevant to the title of each piece. Take for example Elephantidae – Land of the Elephant (which is part of the series called Mappa Animalia). Everything in this “map” is named after both fictional and actual elephant species that are either extinct or still around today. Mappa Animalia is meant as a tribute to mother nature and the entire animal kingdom and illustrates how animals and nature together form a beautiful symbiosis.
No actual geographical locations are presented in any of these pieces. Everything has been drawn from scratch by me using mostly Illustrator.
More info: Facebook | daudaw.com
Elephantidae – Land of the Elephant
Canis – Land of the Wolf
Ursidae – Land of the Bear
Trochilidae – Land of the Hummingbird
Cervidae – Land of the Deer
Vulpini – Land of the Fox
Land Ho – A Tribute to Adventurers and Explorers
This map is meant as a tribute to all travelers and explorers throughout time and as an invitation for everybody to go and experience the world.
Mountains, seas, lakes, cities etc. are all named after famous travelers and explorers.
And for those who haven’t noticed, the islands in this map form the words “LAND HO”.
In order to make the currents on this piece look as realistic as possible, I spent a lot of time reading about warm and cold ocean currents, how they effect one another and how they circulate.
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I think that the best thing about your lands is the fact that they can truly be those animals' habitat. For example Ursidae's mostly tiny pieces of land, surrounded with lots of water : polar bears would love that. And Canis would really be a suitable place for wolves and their prey: because it's got tall mountains with lots of open land around them.
Hey Zori. Cool how you appreciate all the tiny details! Its nice to know they dont go unnoticed. I also like to imagine where on each map i would like to live - close to the water, nice view of tall mountains and so on :)
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+1! The photographs are also exceptionally well shot. It can be hard to capture those details in macro shots, and to accurately capture the colors of prints with indoor lighting but these images seem to do both well.
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I think that the best thing about your lands is the fact that they can truly be those animals' habitat. For example Ursidae's mostly tiny pieces of land, surrounded with lots of water : polar bears would love that. And Canis would really be a suitable place for wolves and their prey: because it's got tall mountains with lots of open land around them.
Hey Zori. Cool how you appreciate all the tiny details! Its nice to know they dont go unnoticed. I also like to imagine where on each map i would like to live - close to the water, nice view of tall mountains and so on :)
Load More Replies... +1! The photographs are also exceptionally well shot. It can be hard to capture those details in macro shots, and to accurately capture the colors of prints with indoor lighting but these images seem to do both well.
Load More Replies... 
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