We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathan Kaufmann and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathan, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Tough question. As I’m still struggling to make a living out of my maps, I ask myself this question a lot.
What gives me the confidence to face difficulties is the feedback I have of my work.
Like Providence, these comments arrive at times when I’m close to give up. People that I never met, bought my maps on Etsy and made positive, enthusiastic and laudatory feedback that bring me a large smile and give me the will to persevere.

There are people willing to buy my maps, they are praising their aesthetic, proud to hang them or offer them and they thank me for it.
Realising it, that despite my low level of communication strategy, people are enjoying my work so much is what makes me to keep going.

Now, thanks to those people, I know I can make a living out of making beautiful maps, and I will achieve this goal.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My challenge with 21maps is to give maps a new look. I want them to be very aesthetic and decorative. I want maps to be part of a decoration project, of interior design ideas while still being informative maps. I love geography so much that I want to share my knowledge. Share that there is a Norwegian island south of South Africa (Bouvet Island), share that Port-of-Spain is not in Spain but in Trinidad, share that there are so many volcanoes in Indonesia, share that the busiest airport in the World is in Atlanta etc.)

My biggest challenge is that even though I studied geography, I never really had any mapmaking class so I had to learn on my own, learn of to make a good map, learn how the best geographer view maps and create my own style, my own aesthetic.

I achieved this by making unusual thematic maps (volcano world map, airports world map, oceanic world map, mountains world map) and working on the graphics to get a “wow effect”. I want people to say “wow” when they see my maps and want to hang them at their place, home or work office.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in Toulouse, a big city in the South of France, it’s the 4th biggest city in the country after Paris, Marseilles and Lyon. It’s nicknamed “La ville rose”, because of the pink terracotta bricks used for centuries to build the city. I’ll take anybody to visit Toulouse along the Garonne river, with a stop of the iconic “Pont Neuf” where on sunny days, we can see the snowy Pyrénées Moutains in the distance. We could also walk along the “Canal du midi”, a calm walk that is the embodiment of France’s “Douceur de vivre”.

Toulouse is also famous in France and Europe for two things : Air&Space industries and Rugby.
Visiting the “Cité de l’Espace” (a museum focusing on Astronomy and Spaceflight)  and a watching a game of Rugby are almost mandatory.
Rugby has its own culture, very peaceful, friendly and festive far from the violence seen in Europe around soccer.
Finally, one should absolutely eat a cinnamon roll in “Canopée”, my favourite coffee house, located in the “Vieux Toulouse”, (medieval part of the city).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As mentioned before, I want to thank all these people who enjoyed my maps so much. All of them help me overcome the impostor’s syndrome I have since I decided to be an entrepreneur.

Website: 21maps.etsy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/21_maps/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/21maps

Image Credits
all by 21maps except the last one (oceanique_corse), photography by Sophie Ricci with her permission

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