India — Reference Maps

Context

Two pieces made outside any brief, for the reason reference maps usually get made — because the question came up often enough that it was worth drawing once properly.

Role

Data preparation and visualisation

Prepared the data and built the pieces: a projection map of population by state and union territory, and the attendance figures for major pilgrimages, fairs and festivals drawn twice — once as a hierarchy, once as a symbol map.

Process

The festival data is shown two ways because the two questions it answers are different. A hierarchy ranks and nests: which gathering is largest, and what it sits inside. A symbol map puts the same numbers back on the ground, where the clustering along particular rivers and routes is the thing you actually see.