{"id":769224,"date":"2025-10-28T19:47:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=769224"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:47:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:47:54","slug":"take-on-the-30-day-map-challenge","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/take-on-the-30-day-map-challenge","title":{"rendered":"Take On the 30-Day Map Challenge"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15202,472991,91],"tags":[322972,301,164952,176332,238461],"arcnews_issues":[493219],"class_list":["post-769224","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartography","category-gis","category-mapping","tag-career-development","tag-community","tag-gis-skills","tag-gis-user-community","tag-learn-gis","arcnews_issues-fall-2025","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"In November, cartographers around the world are making a new map each day of the month, leveling up their mapping skills.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In November, cartographers around the world are taking part in the 30-Day Map Challenge, an annual social mapping challenge that encourages participants to make a new map every day for 30 days. Held each November since 2019, the 30-Day Map Challenge focuses on practical cartography, according to its creator, Topi Tjukanov, a GIS engineering manager based in Finland.\r\n\r\nTjukanov posts the categories for each year\u2014ranging from points, lines, and polygons to vintage style\u2014on 30daymapchallenge.com<\/a>. Many cartographers who participate in the challenge learn new mapping techniques and approaches. Some share their work on social media, inspiring others to level up their own cartography skills."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":769225,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Creating a Map a Day for a Month<\/h2>\r\nThe story of this project began in 2019 when Tjukanov was riding a bus to work in Helsinki. While browsing posts on Twitter\u2014now called X\u2014he came across an online event called Inktober which challenged artists to create a new ink drawing based on a different theme each day in October and post their work to social media.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt the time, I was already making a lot of maps, and I figured others might enjoy doing the same, especially with some creative structure,\u201d said Tjukanov, noting that creating 30 maps in 30 days would likely be a real challenge. \u201cI never expected it to catch on the way it did.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen Tjukanov posted his idea on Twitter back in 2019, \u201cthe response exploded,\u201d he said. \u201cIt became clear there was a real appetite in the [mapping] community for something like this.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Advancing Skills\u2014and Careers<\/h2>\r\nTjukanov\u2019s success in creating and organizing the annual project helped him land his current role at Mapbox, he said. Many participants have advanced their careers or gained new skills because of the challenge, he added.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of the best parts has been seeing people gain the confidence to share their work publicly for the first time and then grow from there,\u201d he explained.\r\n\r\nShira Ellenson, an Alaska-based cartographer and senior geospatial analyst at Esri partner Dewberry, said her first experience with the challenge in 2024 inspired her to try new mapping approaches and share her work online. When she participated in the challenge, she saw it as a way to put together a mapping portfolio."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":769226,"image_position":"left","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cNot only was it a really fun process, [but] it inspired me to go outside my comfort zone to try new tutorials, software, and geoprocessing tools,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nCreating 30 new maps from scratch is indeed a challenge, according to Ellenson, which is why, for the 2024 challenge, she made about 20 new maps and revised others she had already created.\r\n\r\n\u201cMany of the maps I designed for the contest aren\u2019t ones I\u2019d typically make for work, but having the space to flex creative muscles was a great opportunity,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nFor example, one challenge map that Ellenson created was inspired by a climbing trip she took in Jordan. Using color, topographic details, and iconography, the map evokes the country\u2019s history and arid landscape while providing the impression of looking up at the mountainous terrain\u2014just as a traveler on the ground would.\r\n\r\nAnother of Ellenson\u2019s maps, inspired by a tutorial<\/a> from Esri cartographer and ArcGIS Online blogger John Nelson, won Best Artistic Map in the 2025 Women in GIS map contest and second place in the professional category of the GIS Certification Institute\u2019s 2025 map contest. Titled \u201cTracking the Buzz: 20 Years of Honey Bees,\u201d Ellenson\u2019s map uses hexagons to evoke beehive cells and illustrate changes in honeybee colony numbers from 2002 to 2022."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"

Mapping Resources and Inspiration<\/h2>\r\n30-Day Map Challenge participant Shira Ellenson relied on the following resources and sources of inspiration when making her 2024 challenge maps, using software such as ArcGIS Pro, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.\r\n