Swiss maps - Switzerland from a bird's eye view (Swiss Press Online 2014, by Sylke Gruhnwald) - Swiss Press Award

Http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/inland-sommerserie-schweizer-karten-interaktiv/

Sylke Gruhnwald

Everything, or at least almost everything, is measured and statistically recorded these days, especially in a small and wealthy country like Switzerland, where navel-gazing is anything but foreign. For four weeks (July 16 to August 10, 2014), four NZZ editors – Urs Bloch, Sylke Gruhnwald, Marcel Gyr, and Paul Schneeberger – in collaboration with the Zurich design studio Interactive Things, drew on this wealth of information. Using daily changing and self-explanatory cartographic representations, they presented facets of what defines the Swiss Confederation today on NZZ.ch and in the newspaper under the title "Swiss Maps." The graphic abstractions from a bird's eye view depict facts – either directly or using codes that represent various topographical, social, political, or even economic phenomena. Once a week, one of the maps is supplemented by an in-depth report. The representations are not intended to convey conclusive wisdom. The aim is rather to use them to sharpen one's eye for connections and developments and, in doing so, to occasionally wink with one's observing eyes.