Walking Through History
Earley Local History Group
2024
Information design
Published by Earley Local History Group, Walking Through History is a walking book with specific insight into the histories of the areas through which you are walking. I was taken onboard this project in my first year at university after the existing designers were having trouble with the maps, and this became my ‘thing’ for the book: designing the richly detailed maps that were essential for walkers to understand. Whist nowadays I would opt to design in a different way – more focus on detail, less focus on thick lines, perhaps – it is symbolic of my beginning as an information designer with my first published book with my designs in it.
The maps desigbned for the book focussed on large parts of Reading. For this reason, for the overview maps, it was decided that the map would be less detailed than on the individual walk pages.
The map overview of this part of Reading was difficult to design as it featured multiple overlapping routes. Eventually, it was decided that the best course of action was to make the lines run parallel at the expense of geography, with it being expected that users of the book turn to the respective page to navigate.