Is anyone else mesmerized by the cool wavy lines of a topographic map? I came across a clever artistic interpretation of this map style in these ceramic tiles from Osuma Design. Arja Rantala and Sami Haikonen are the two young designers behind the Finnish design company. The ceramic tile fittingly entitled Soil, is inspired by the topography of the Toolo bay area of Helsinki city center. Uncut tiles create a continuous pattern, while cut tiles create a broken landscape with emergent structures. Unfortunately it’s only a prototype right now and not available for sale. But it’s great inspiration!

The image on the right is a topographic map of San Francisco from Berkeley. You can download the full image here.

[ Via ffffound ]