I used to think all my maps needed a compass rose

Last week I was sketching a map for a pirate story and it just looked cluttered. I left it off and the whole thing felt cleaner and more focused. Has anyone else dropped a classic map element and been happy with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron3842mo ago

Totally get that, compass roses can be such a space hog. I stopped putting a scale bar on my fantasy city maps because the numbers never made sense anyway. The page just looks better without that box of tiny numbers in the corner. It's like the map can finally breathe.

the_mary2mo ago

Oh man, I get that! My last map had a compass rose so big and fancy it was basically eating a sea monster. @spencer199, I love the idea of hiding it in the art, but my drawing skills are more "lopsided blob" than "clever hidden feature." Sometimes you just gotta let the map be free, you know?

spencer1992mo ago

But doesn't the compass rose add a bit of that old school charm? For my pirate maps, I make the rose part of the art, like hiding it in a monster drawing on the edge. It feels wrong to leave it out completely.