EmoriaCustom art prints and star maps
Maps · Collection 01

Portland poster, drawn from the real map

45.5152°N / 122.6784°W · United States

On this sheet the river runs towards the top. The Willamette flows north on its way to the Columbia, entering at the bottom edge and leaving at the top left, and the city is laid out along its course: the old town on the west bank, the long grid of the east bank across the water, and a run of bridges between them.

You choose the framing, the palette and the words of the caption. The work is drawn from real data, then printed to order in the workshop closest to you.

Compose my Portland poster
What the map shows

A river that flows north, and a town of small squares on its west bank

The Willamette crosses the whole sheet in a broad band of water that narrows as it passes the centre. On its west bank, downtown is a tight grid of small, even squares, turned a little to follow the river, with a thin green strip along the water’s edge. Across the river, the east bank is laid out on a much longer grid that faces the compass, and a run of bridges crosses between the two, from the heavy motorway decks in the south to the lighter strokes of the older bridges downtown. To the right of the sheet, in the middle of that grid, a large X is drawn in the streets, with a small circle at its centre.

Read on

Towards the bottom, the river widens around Ross Island, a long green island with water inside it. To the west, the hills rise straight behind downtown: they have no relief on this map, but their woods are drawn in green and their roads wind in tight curves, which is enough to tell the slope. The rail lines along the east bank are drawn too pale to read.

Compose your own

What suits Portland

The palette

The river is the backbone of this sheet: choose an ink that holds both its broad reaches and its narrow passage through the centre, where the bridges cross it. Green has real work to do here, on the wooded hills to the west, on Ross Island, in the circle and diamonds of Ladd’s Addition and along the waterfront; a green with some depth keeps the hills readable without any relief. The bridges are drawn as roads, so a street line dark enough to carry them over the water keeps each crossing distinct.

The framing

Portrait, a little south-east of the engraved point, which sits among the small squares of downtown: the river from the bottom edge to the top left, the bridges of the centre, Ladd’s Addition to the right and Ross Island at the bottom. The meeting with the Columbia lies well beyond the top of the sheet. Pull back and the river grows longer, but the small squares merge into a single grey patch; come closer and the blocks sharpen, at the cost of Ross Island.

The caption

The title, one line under it, the coordinates. On this map the X of Ladd’s Addition already looks like a signature; the caption can add a second one, a name or a date of your own.

The sheet
Subject
Portland, United States
Palette
Forest
Map style
Clean and Detailed
Layout
Frame
Typeface
Dedication
Framing
Zoom 12.0
Fade at the edges
0%
Format
Portrait
The palette of this poster

Forest

Sixteen inks, in the configurator’s order. It is not in the catalogue, but you will find it in the palette library, filed under its material.

  • Background
  • Water
  • Greenery
  • Built-up areas
  • Roads
  • Buildings
  • Text
  • Motorways
  • Main roads
  • Secondary roads
  • Minor roads
  • Streets
  • Service roads
  • Paths
  • Railways
  • Borders
Compose with this paletteStart from it to make your own

Opens the colour workshop with these 16 inks in place: change one, keep the rest.

It will wait in your account, ready for any piece.

What the drawing tells

Three facts you can see on the plan

1845Two hundred feet square

The first townsite was platted in 1845 by Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, with its streets running parallel to the west bank of the river, between what are now Washington and Jefferson streets. Its blocks were two hundred feet square, divided into lots of fifty by one hundred feet. On the sheet, it is the tight pattern of small squares around the engraved point, turned to follow the bank rather than the compass.

1891An X in the grid

In 1891 William Ladd proposed the layout of a 126-acre neighbourhood on the east side whose design called for diagonal streets forming an X, with a park, Ladd’s Circle, at the centre. In the middle of each of the four quarters, a smaller diamond-shaped park acts as a roundabout; all four were planted with roses in 1910. On the sheet, it is the X to the right of the river; come closer and the circle and its four diamonds turn green.

1978A motorway made into a park

A motorway, Harbor Drive, once ran along the west bank, between downtown and the water. A task force set up in 1968 called for its closure; it was permanently closed in 1974, and since 1978 a thirty-acre park has run along the river in its place, today named after Governor Tom McCall. It is the thin green strip between the small squares and the water.

Before ordering

The four questions people ask

Can I choose any place, any date?

Yes. The search covers the whole world, from a capital to a hamlet. For the Sky collection, any date works, past or future: the sky is calculated.

What sizes do you offer?

From 21 × 29.7 cm to 84.1 × 118.9 cm, that is A4 to A0, portrait or landscape depending on the material. Every size is shown with its price in the editor.

What materials do you offer?

Four, from the barest to the most dressed.

  • Matte fine art paperA 200 gsm art paper with a deep matte finish: the bare print, to frame as you please.
  • Wooden hangersThe print suspended between two wooden hangers, ready to hang, in the spirit of studio posters.
  • The classic frameThe print mounted under acrylic glass in a slim frame, assembled by hand, delivered ready to hang.
  • Framed canvasThe piece printed on canvas, stretched over a wooden stretcher bar and set in a frame: a gallery presence.
How long does it take?

Making depends on the edition: 1 to 3 working days for Fine Art paper and wooden hangers, 3 days for the poster and the mounted frame, 3 to 5 days for the framed canvas. Transit depends on the country:

Delivered toIn transitIn total
European Union5 to 7 working days6 to 12 working days
United Kingdom2 to 3 working days3 to 8 working days
United States4 to 6 working days5 to 11 working days
CanadaNational deliveryGiven at dispatch
AustraliaNational deliveryGiven at dispatch

These are standard delivery times and remain indicative. For a set date, order two to three weeks ahead.

Digital editions are available immediately: the file of your piece can be downloaded from your account as soon as you order, and an email lets you know the moment it is ready.

All the questions

Your Portland

Some people remember Portland by its bridges, some by its small square blocks, some by the green hills to the west. All three are on this sheet, and so is the corner where they met for you.

Compose my Portland poster