The city of Boulder, Colorado has a lot to brag about. “America’s Best Town for Startups” (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2011) is just one of the many superlatives used to describe the sunny city. Boulder is also the skinniest, the healthiest, and the happiest. Applied Trust co-founders Ned McClain (@nedmcclain) and Trent Hein (@trenthein) came to us searching for a way to highlight all these awesome things about Boulder—particularly what an amazing entrepreneurial community it is. With dozens of cool startups, stats about the city, and a plethora of outdoor activities, we had more than enough to visualize.
Our goal was to create a fun map that explored how great Boulder is for tech startups. In order to capture the layout of the city—the Rocky Mountains, the Pearl St. walking mall, nearby ski resorts, the University of Colorado, and more)—we decided to go with a modern take on vintage Disneyland maps like these:
We wanted the map to have some character, so we included a few landmarks from around Boulder to help make the map more representative and recognizable. We wanted it to have the same feel as Boulder as well, so we used bright earth tones to give it a natural feel.
The University of Colorado’s Macky Auditorium
The Flatiron Rock Formations
The maps were printed just in time for the five-day celebration of the startup community known as Boulder Startup Week. So many people wanted one that they had to go into a second print run. We had the absolute pleasure of working with AppliedTrust; this poster was their vision brought to life, and we hope their passion for both their community and the startups that thrive there shines through.
The maps are still available online from Boulder.Is in both print and hi-res digital formats.
Follow us on Twitter @columnfive, on Tumblr at columnfive.tumblr.com, on Pinterest at pinterest.com/columnfive/, and like us on Facebook at Column Five.
The poster was absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for crafting that monster so thoughtfully.
Ef Rodriguez
Event director, Boulder Startup Week
I can’t express how awesome it was to work with Column Five’s team on this project!! Uber-creative, flexible, and turned things around right on schedule – y’all rock!!