NACIS 2016 Presentation Travis White, University of Kansas This project was born of a conversation about how stripped down a map design can become before the mapped features are unrecognizable and the design no longer retains any aesthetic or functional elegance. Heady stuff, but relevant to a series of river maps I wanted to design. I started with two beautiful works of inspiration (Darton and Gardner's 1823 Comparative Heights of the Principal Mountains and Lengths of the Principal Rivers and Joost Grooten's 2005 Metropolitan World Atlas) and the minimalist design aesthetic found in the De Stijl movement, the Bauhaus school, and the International Style (over-simply put, less is more and form follows function). This presentation shares my process of conceiving and developing this river atlas, the final design solutions I arrived at, and early attempts at both print and digital production.