Pencils sharpen as the Melbourne Map is re-released after 27 years

TWENTY seven years after a team of artists brought Melbourne to life in a wildly popular character map — they’ve sharpened their pencils to do it all again.

TWENTY seven years after a team of artists brought Melbourne to life in a wildly popular character map — they’ve sharpened their pencils to do it all again.

Originally published in 1990, The famous “Melbourne Map’’ will be re-released to include the city’s updated architecture.

Illustrators have spent more than 4000 hours researching and carefully drawing the city’s evolving skyline which now includes Southern Cross Station, Docklands, Etihad Stadium and Federation Square.

Project founder Melinda Clarke said the concept for the map started 30 years ago while she was travelling overseas. She returned to Melbourne to create her own character map of her home city and it was an instant hit.

“Over the years so many people have asked me if I was going to update it,’’ Ms Clarke said.

“Melbourne has changed so much in 27 years — we thought we could just scan it and update it but we soon realised we were going to have to start from scratch.’’

Lewis Brownlie, Melinda Clarke and Deborah Young have helped reboot Melbourne’s famous illustrative map, spending more than 40,000 hours researching the new and improved version 27 years after the first. Picture: Jason Edwards

The creative team successfully crowd funded more than $90,000 to make the project a reality.

Illustrator Lewis Brownlie said the source material came from road maps, photos and artist impressions.

“It’s like making a big jigsaw puzzle but without the box,’’ he said.

The illustration captures the CBD and a surrounding five to 10km radius and will also include a list of things to find.

It is expected to be released in colour and in black and white later this year.

“We have put our heart and soul into this project,’’ Ms Clarke said.

“In terms of an art project this is a pretty grand scale.’’

For more information see their Pozible page.

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