How Glowforge paved the way for scaling up
One of Glowforge’s earliest customers, David backed the company during its record-breaking crowdfunding campaign. “I felt like there was room for some unique cartographic items that Glowforge would enable,” he says. “I’ve now managed to turn making into a full-time pursuit rather than just my side hobby. That’s down to Glowforge.”
When he folded Glowforge into his toolbox, he was struck by how quickly it resolved many of his creative barriers. “I can have an idea, then design that idea in Affinity Designer, and then bring it into the physical with as little friction as possible,” he says. “Previously, I would have to outsource at incredible cost anything that I wanted made physical.”
He was able to quickly expand his business to make fully custom wood maps for his customers from start to finish right at home. But the real boon is how flexible it’s made his ideation process. “It allows me to really explore,” he says. “I can take chances on ideas I have with almost zero financial risk to myself. That means I end up with more products for my business and I can be satisfied I’ve explored my ideas to the fullest with zero guilt about wasted money.”
He still has the very first map he made in his now widely popular wood style. "I remember when my NYC map was finished holding it in my hands and thinking ‘This could work as a business,’” he says. “I'll never forget that moment, and that map still sits in my office today.”
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From data to mapmaking
Before he grew his business to what it is today, David worked as an analyst in the finance sector. “Making and designing was always a bit of an outlet for me, a way to express some creativity beyond spreadsheets and databases,” he says. “I think the ability to have an idea and then nurture it through to fruition is a fundamental facet of a happy mind, and making is the way I seem to achieve that best.”
His creative path eventually led him to mapmaking. “I’ve always been fascinated by maps, but I think it actually stems from my interest in something astronauts encounter when they go into space called the overview effect. Once they get up into space and look at earth in its totality waning in space with no visible borders and all of humanity’s expansion laid out to see, they tend to return with an altered viewpoint,” he says. “They return realizing our impact on the earth and how fragile it is.”
Space travel is far from being accessible to the average citizen, but that’s where David sees maps as playing a crucial role in providing people a new perspective. “I think if more people could have the chance to see that viewpoint it could genuinely alter how people think about our place and role here,” he says. “Maps are as near as we can get to space while keeping our feet on the ground, and I just think they’re a beautiful tool for recording where humanity is in that moment.”
An award-winning map and internet fame
Although he’s made maps for locations all over the world, David still has his favorites. “The Paris map won two awards at this year’s British Cartographic Society awards,” he says. “I’ll always remember that one as it was the first time I put my work out there in that sort of way.”
His other favorite? Something totally different: an intricate wooden recreation of Hyrule, the mythical kingdom that acts as the setting for the Legend of Zelda series. “It’s a very complex design that required a whole lot of manual assembly,” he says. “And it celebrates one of my favorite franchises ever. If 8-year-old me could have seen what 33-year-old-me had made there, well I’d have been impressed!”
It was a hit online, made the front page of Reddit, and brought him a whole new audience. “It’s always a blast to see my work get recognition, and it’s always a huge relief when it does,” he says. “When someone asks what you do for a living, and you say, ‘I make wood maps,’ they often have a puzzled reaction. It’s nice to be able to sit back and think, ‘Well the Adelaide map I shared last week online got a quarter of a million views with almost as many likes—I must be doing something someone likes!’”
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