ElevatedMaps Launches to Create Artistic 3D Printed Custom Maps of Anyplace in the World

I’m in the process of moving into a new home, and boy do I have my hands full. My husband and I have decided to furnish and design the interior of our home completely from scratch. While this is amazingly fun and inspiring, it can also be a ton of work. We are trying to create a warm yet industrial design within our home, and this includes purchasing or creating everything from our wall decor to living room furniture and lighting. We’ve found that when it comes to displaying artwork and photographs, the things you can purchase at most stores just aren’t what we are looking for.

For example, we love the idea of displaying vintage family crests over the headboard of our bed, but the ones available to purchase at stores such as Restoration Hardware are crests representing other families. It would cost us an arm and a leg to hire someone to actually replicate our own family’s crest, so we are still searching for that perfect wall decor in our master bedroom. We may have just found the answer though, in the form of 3D printed maps.

A Dutch company called Elevated Graphics has just launched a new website called ElevatedMaps, which provides people like my husband and me with a solution to creating custom artwork.

The website works by allowing people to select exact locations, anywhere in the world, and then customize a map for that area, which will then be 3D printed in an incredibly artistic way. First you choose the location of your choice, then you zoom in or out to depict precisely which areas in a region you would like your map to cover. Then you have the ability to select different styles, such as “Topo True,” “Vintage,” “At Night,” “Minimal” or “Color Crazy” to modify the colors on the map itself. You have have the option of removing different layers from the map, such as roads, water, buildings, etc.. Once you have your map completely customized, you select the size and then place an order. Prices range from $107.95 for a 20 x 20 cm map to $393.25 for a 50 x 50 cm map.

Once the order is placed, your map is 3D printed using colored inks, creating a beautiful artistic representation — in 3D — of your desired location. It will then be delivered to your front door in just 10 days.

This is perfect for my husband and me, as we are still deciding on which maps we will be printing to display over our bed in our bedroom. Will we 3D print our home towns of Columbus, Ohio, and Somers Point, NJ, or will we perhaps print out destinations from our honeymoon? That, we are still debating.

We have seen 3D printing used in the creation of all sorts of artworks over the past couple of years, yet it seems as though every few weeks another unique use for the technology arises. This latest utilization of 3D printing to create unique art is definitely something that could catch on quite quickly. What do you think about these 3D printed custom maps? Discuss in the Elevated Maps forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below, showing more on the process.