STREETWISE is the first map to be designed with modern graphics and a real life sensibility. Each map is designed to enable the user to feel comfortable in an unfamiliar place or to experience a familiar place more fully. Easy to find where you are or where you’re going, discreet and durable, these maps are conceived by need and refined by experience. Clear, concise, convenient.
The company was founded in 1984 by Michael Brown. Brown worked in international market for many years, setting up subsidiaries for textbook publishers. In the 1970’s, Brown traveled extensively throughout Africa, India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Brown would take a large paper map, cut out the city center, folded it up and slip it into his pocket, thus preventing him from looking like a tourist in areas where discretion is the better part of travel. This was his tool for surviving.
After many years on the road, Brown settled back in New York and decided to start his own business, based on the adaptations he had made to maps in his travels. His goal was to give someone the ability to navigate easily in unfamiliar terrain.
He started with a new map format: the accordion fold. Such a simple idea, but at the time it was revolutionary. No more struggling to fold an awkward, over sized paper map. This new format would enable the user to blend in like a native, instead of stick out like a tourist. Brown then added lamination to for durability.
More important than the format was the design of the map itself. It had to be a map that not only succeeded above and beyond any map he had used, but was aesthetically appealing as well. The look of it had to be as striking as the functionality. Color was introduced in a way that was never seen before in a map - vivid purple for water, soothing gray for the background of street grids, gold to highlight elements of the map.
This format has since had many imitators, but no one has replicated the combination of content, usability and sleek design that defines a STREETWISE map.
Building the business was a 24 hour job. Brown sold the maps during the day, zipping around Manhattan making deliveries on a Harley Davidson. At night he packed the orders and did the design work. More titles were added, each title requiring months of research and design.
Today, STREETWISE® produces over 100 titles for major destinations, regions and countries throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, South America and Asia.
Each title is still painstakingly researched and updated. STREETWISE® is one of the only, if not the only map company that conducts research by walking or driving an area to ensure accuracy. After all, accuracy depends on physical research (we're looking at you Google). STREETWISE standards dictate that it’s not good enough to rely on incomplete databases, faulty assumptions or, as found more frequently, unverified web information. Each map is a faithful depiction of what you’ll find on the street.
In the end, it’s not about the map. It’s about getting out and finding your own authentic experience, wherever you go. It’s about discovering things you never thought you would find. You can do this if you have confidence and you have confidence when you have a great map. That great map is STREETWISE.
