About

Geraldine Sarmiento is an artist and cartographic designer.

Geraldine started making maps at Stamen Design. She is the designer of Toner and Watercolor Maps. After Stamen, her cartographic journey continued at Apple, Mapzen, Snap and HERE Technologies. Drawn to the meticulous work of cartography where art, culture and science meet, Geraldine continues to experiment in mixing the traditional with the technological. Patterns, color, symbol, and scale are all part of the exciting visual vocabulary she explores when describing the planet.

Watercolor Maptiles is now part of the permanent collection at The Cooper Hewitt and is the first living website to be acquired by the Smithsonian.

She earned her B.F.A. at The Cooper Union and M.P.S. from The Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch in New York City.

CLIENTS

ACLU, Allmaps, BBC, California Academy of Sciences, California Health Care Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Program, City of Copenhagen, Climate Central, CNET, Esquire Magazine, Google, Exploratorium, Facebook, Fandango, FCC, Flickr, FortiusOne/GeoIQ, Human Energy, LOCOG, Maritime Museum of London, Mastercard, Microsoft, MoMA, SFMoMA, MSNBC, Museum of London, MTV, National Geographic Society, NBC, New York Public Library, The New York Times, Nokia, Oakland Museum, Oprah, Popular Mechanics, Protomaps, Random House, Trip Advisor, The Weather Channel, Trulia, VPRO, Yandex, Warner Bros., Zillow.

PUBLICATIONS/PRESS

“Watercolor Maptiles Website Enters Permanent Collection of Cooper Hewitt / Smithsonian Institution”, Smithsonian, May 2021

“How Far Can You Abstract a Map?”, Atlas Obscura, March 2017

“A Study of the Geographic Forms in Cartography”, Flowing Data, October 2017

“Meet the Extraordinary Women Making Maps Today”, Bloomberg CityLab, March 2016

Toner and Watercolor Maps, Cartographic Grounds by Jill Desimini & Charles Waldheim

Watercolor Maps, It’s Nice That 2012 Annual

Stamen, Icon Magazine 109 , July 2012 (Crimespotting, Toner, Watercolor, Surging Seas)

“When the Data Struts Its Stuff”, The New York Times, April 2011 (MondoWindow and MTV Twitter Trackers)

“50 Most Innovative Design Companies”, Fast Company, 2011 (MTV Twitter Trackers)

“A Visual Tool to Track Olympic Tweets”, The New York Times, February 2010 (NBC Olympics Twitter Tracker)

“When It Comes To Making Data Sexy, You Can’t Be Too Graphic”, CNN, November 2009 (Oakland and San Francisco Crimespotting)

“San Francisco, The City That’s Open For Data” , The Guardian, October 2009 (Oakland and San Francisco Crimespotting)

“New Cartographers”, Esquire Magazine, December 2008 (Trulia, LOCOG, SFMoMA)

Stamen, Contagious Magazine, December 2008 (Trulia, LOCOG, SFMoMA)

SHOWS

The City from the Valley, Zero1 Silicon Valley Biennial
Zero1 Garage, San Jose, California, September 2012

Stamen Show @ GAFFTA with Casey Reas and Camille Utterback
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Inaugural Exhibition, San Francisco, October 2009

Algorithmic Sound Show
Knitting Factory, New York City, March 2006

Algorithmic Sound Show
Diapason, New York City, December 2005