Okay, river lovers…now here’s a globe you can truly sink your teeth into. What to give the paddler who seemingly has everything? How about a river globe.
Grasshopper Geography and Columbus Globes have partnered to create the first globes showing all river basins on Earth. The scientific yet artistic series of globes show each watershed in a different color, creating a unique 2-in-1 educational tool and piece of art that fits classrooms, offices, living rooms and shuttle rigs alike.
Showing all river basins on Earth, the beautiful maps for the handmade, premium globes were designed by Robert Szucs, founder and mapmaker of Grasshopper Geography, and are applied to the globes by the skillful artisans at Columbus Globes’ workshop in Krauchenwies, Germany. With a lightbulb inside, these decorative globes double as a highly original bedside or atmosphere lamp, yet their most unique advantage over traditional political globes might be that they don’t get outdated, no matter how long it stays in your family.
“Seeing my work on these globes is probably the proudest moment of my career so far as a mapmaker and artist,” Szucs said. “When I reached out to Columbus Globes a few years ago to bring my dream to life and see the rainbow colored river basin maps on their gorgeous handcrafted globes, my offer of collaboration was met with a positive response. After hundreds of hours of collaborative work and months of preparation, we are happy to show this new line of globes to the world.”
Niklas Oestergaard, COO at Columbus Globes added: “The exceptional highly detailed maps created by Grasshopper Geography were always fascinating to me – when following the main rivers up to their many, many roots you can see the attention to detail that Robert Szucs stands for. When my great-great-grandfather founded COLUMBUS Globes in 1909, his first principle was to bring globes with state-of-the-art maps and exceptional quality into people’s homes. Over the years, this principle has never changed and COLUMBUS challenges itself in this principle every day. Therefore, I believe that this collaboration is a perfect match. We are proud to take the Grasshopper Geography map line to a new dimension.”
The maps, which took hundreds of hours for Szucs to finish, are printed at exceptionally high quality (1400 DPI), cut into segments, then hand-applied to an acrylic glass sphere. The finished globe itself is mounted on a satin brushed, stainless steel meridian and base. The globes are available at Grasshopper Geography’s website with black and white backgrounds and with a diameter of 34 or 40 cm (13.4 or 15.7 inches), starting at $399 and shipping worldwide.
About the artist:
Robert Szucs is a digital cartographer turned artist who saw the potential to turn nature’s patterns into contemporary artwork. Under his moniker Grasshopper Geography, the Hungarian artist creates informative and beautiful maps about a wide range of geographic subjects, from rivers to forests and population density to elevation. His colorful maps began as a creative outlet and an escape from everyday office drudgery, but since his work garnered international attention in 2016 he has worked with clients from dozens of countries and every continent. His works featured in countless articles from CNN to BBC, Smithsonian Magazine to The Washington Post, and also in books, documentary films, textbooks, museums, classrooms, and thousands of homes and offices around the world.
About Columbus Globes:
The oldest and most respected manufacturer in the globe industry, Columbus Globes was founded 115 years ago and is still led today by the Oestergaard family. With a history of excellence that spans five generations, their globes have been handcrafted with passion and precision for over a century. Their meticulous attention to detail and forward thinking design means that Columbus globes are built to last a lifetime to come. Pioneers in many areas, from illuminated glass globes to floating solutions, their DUO globe and the Explorer Pen, Columbus’ long history shows us that tradition and innovation can come hand-in-hand.
