Hi! I’m Freddie, and I am a history student and hobbyist map maker from Bristol, UK.
Maps have always fascinated me, with their ability to represent the world, events and even stories. I have collected many maps, from the mundane to the fantastical, including many old Ordinance Survey maps. Old maps particularly interest me, for they represent purpose and understanding which we can see with what they include and omit, and their inaccuracies.
From my love for maps came a passion for creating my own. I started making maps as young as ten years old, sketching fictional continents and countries on bits of paper. Not too long after I began making maps on the computer, starting out with rather crude MS Paint maps, and then later on to GIMP. Finally, in the last four years I have been using Inkscape to make vector maps in a variety of styles and purposes including historical maps for my history BA dissertation and commissions.
Currently I make maps depicting fictional settings of my own creation, such as my own worldbuilding projects, of alternate history scenarios and of real world history. I also take part in cartography contests, making maps fitting specific prompts and scenarios. I try to make each map better than the last, and I am proud to see how far I have come in my map making journey.
FT Winckless 