In May 2019, we were commissioned to design a weekly thematic map of Germany (Deutschlandkarte) for ZEITmagazin. When the series came to an end in September 2021, we had designed over 100 maps.

Since we had been working for the exhibition and research project Shrinking cities from 2004–08, infographics and data visualisation played an important role in our work.

The design approach for Deutschlandkarte is very free and allows a wide range of expression, since the basic object (a map) remains constant. The visualisation of the theme of the map in a graphically striking, fresh and precise way was our challenge.

The data were delivered in different forms, often as a list (Excel), but also as GeoTiff or as PDF. The data handling and reformatting was quite complex. Sometimes research was needed to complete the data.

The raw Excel data were converted into a map using GIS software. The maps were further processed for printing. We developed a collection of scripts for Illustrator, to handle the multiplicity of elements.