What Is an Equal-Area Projection?
An equal-area projection takes a different approach to mapping the globe.
Because it’s impossible to flatten a sphere without distortion, every projection has to decide what it wants to preserve.
Mercator preserves direction and angle.
Equal-area preserves surface area.
In practical terms, that means countries are shown in their true proportional size relative to one another. Africa, South America, and Asia appear far larger than many people expect, while northern regions reduce to a scale closer to reality.
To achieve this, distortion is redistributed into shape rather than size. Continents may appear slightly stretched or curved — but their land area remains mathematically accurate.
It’s a different compromise — and a revealing one.
Why We Chose It
When we printed our very first Future Map over two decades ago, we chose an equal-area projection as its foundation.
Not because it was perfect — no flat map is — but because it offered a perspective people weren’t used to seeing.
By preserving true land size, it highlights just how dramatically scale shifts between projections. Countries that feel visually dominant on Mercator recalibrate. Others expand into their rightful spatial presence.
The effect isn’t academic — it’s visual.
People notice immediately.
They pause. They look longer. They start conversations.
A Map That Sparks Perspective
One of the most common reactions we see is simple curiosity.
Why does Africa feel so large?
Why does Europe feel more balanced?
Why does the world feel… different?
That recalibration is what makes equal-area mapping so compelling as wall art. It doesn’t just decorate a space — it introduces perspective, story, and quiet provocation.
It invites people to reconsider the familiar without dismissing it.
We’re certainly not anti-Mercator. Quite the opposite — its contribution to navigation and exploration is extraordinary. But when the goal shifts from plotting sea routes to creating meaningful wall art, different priorities come into play.
Equal-area mapping simply tells a different visual story about the planet we share.
From Projection to Wall Piece
Historically, equal-area maps lived mostly in academic or scientific contexts — accurate, but rarely beautiful.
We wanted to change that.
By combining proportional accuracy with refined colour palettes, contemporary typography, and large-format print, the Future Map became something else entirely — a design object grounded in geography, not distortion.
More than 22 years on from that first print, it remains one of our most relevant and conversation-starting pieces.
It doesn’t replace the map people know — it challenges it, which is precisely why it belongs on the wall.
Discover the map that started it all — the Future Map, shown in true proportion → [Shop the Future Map]
