The 'Great Outdoors' postcards

I made these postcards a little before Christmas to send to our mentors to say thanks for all their advice and encouragement over the past few months. We thought they would be good fun to share with everyone else too, and will hopefully provide a little inspiration for adventures in 2013!

What's more, if you email us at hello@maptia.com and tell us your postal address then we would absolutely love to send one to you via the good old English Royal Mail.

You can also download the original files here, so please feel free to give them a home as your desktop wallpaper or perhaps in a blog post or on Pinterest.

UPDATE - 15 Jan 2013

Big thanks to everyone, as we have had a great response to this postcard project so far. We are delighted to receive requests to send our Maptia postcards as far afield as Taiwan, Singapore, and Costa Rica! As promised they will arrive with you via the good old English Royal Mail...

A tribute to Atlas himself

The third ‘Ode to Maps’ inspirational bombshell comes from Mr. Alex Berger – a passionate explorer and self-professed virtual wayfarer. We heard a rumour that he uncovered this epic prose transcribed upon a stone tablet – a tribute to Atlas himself – in the depths of a crumbling Roman temple.

All we know is that these map quotes make us want to go exploring for ourselves! We are honoured to display them here on our blog.

Thanks for the quote Alex – any other map-lovers reading this with a perspective to share, please don’t be shy – send yours to hello@maptia.com.

Be an unstoppable force of nature

Today’s late night inspiration is the second in our mini poster series from Brad Feld’s book – calling all entrepreneurs to get fired up reading FakeGrimLock’s rousing poetry! Brad Feld wrote that we should be ‘tenacious and oblivious’ in pursing our dreams and on our journey towards building something great. He goes on to say that these things are required to make the giant leap from 99% to 100%. As Margaret Mead said,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead

Start-ups have the opportunity to change the world and some of the entrepreneurs that inspire us most are like unstoppable forces of nature. The TechStars mentor T.A. McCann shared similar passion and drive with us earlier this week at TS4AD.

“I will outlast my competitors. When everyone else has gone home, I will do another lap around the track… Ask yourselves why are you here. That will drive your passion, that will drive your excitement.”

— T.A. McCann

'Here be dragons' Map Poster

Presenting the second mini poster in our ‘Ode to Maps’ campaign. Another map lover Tony Hoffmann picks up on the evocative phrase ‘here be dragons’ – used in medieval times to mark unexplored territories and where mapmakers drew sea serpents, dragons, and other mythological beasts.

We rather like the idea of these curious creatures caught in time, forever immortalised on beautiful old maps – figments of people’s imaginations – yet at the time, no doubt powerful deterrents and makers of exciting adventures.

Thanks for the quote Tony! Keep them coming everyone else – yours could be transformed next.