[Advertisement – this is a paid partnership with Bold Tuesday, but as always all words and opinions are my own]
I’ve aways loved travel, and I’ve always had a bit of a geeky obsession with maps and place names. I used to pore over my parents’ Atlas as a child, and to this day I love looking up aerial views on Google Maps or tracing the route of any plane and train journeys I take. And I can easily lose hours on quiz websites like Sporcle, trying to name all the countries which begin with the letter ‘A’ or order the rivers of Europe by length.
With that in mind, I’ve always fancied treating myself to some kind of travel- or map-related poster. But I’d always assumed that they’d be tacky or overly fussy – until I discovered Estonian brand Bold Tuesday, that is.
Based in Tallinn, Bold Tuesday was the brainchild of designers Kairi and Markus. Like me they share a passion for travel and minimalism, and in 2013 they joined forces to create an interactive map for a local competition. It proved so successful that they soon decided (on a Tuesday afternoon, of course) to launch a full collection of posters, and the brand was born the following year.
The result is a range of sleek monochrome prints which are stylish to look at and fun to use. There are world maps which allow you to scratch away the places you’ve visited, word-search posters where you can find and colour in country names, and minimalist outlines of individual nations, US states and polar regions.
My favourite, though, is the ‘List of Countries’ poster, which I’ve chosen for my own home. It depicts all 196 countries of the world, arranged by geographical size from vast to tiny, with the names of their capital cities listed underneath. It’s beautifully simple yet very striking, and it also comes with little stickers that you can use to mark where you’ve travelled.
Of course it’s easy to assume that posters like this are just about showing off, and boasting about how many countries you’ve visited (my current tally is 34, by the way). But there’s so much more to them than that. They help to conjure up happy memories and fuel wanderlust, and I’m sure they’d be a great way to get children interested in the world at large.
I love being able to gaze at my poster over coffee, remembering all the places I’ve travelled to over the years and dreaming about where I might explore next. It also fits perfectly with my minimalist decor, and I’m sure it will come in handy when I get stuck during those quizzes I mentioned!
Bold Tuesday’s posters start from €19.50 and can be shipped worldwide. They’re printed on high-quality, sustainably sourced paper and designed to fit standard-size frames, but you can also choose from a range of magnetic poster rails and hanging clips.
Bold Tuesday is kindly offering my readers a 10% discount until 21st October 2018, with a 20% discount for the first 10 people to place an order. Just shop as normal on the Bold Tuesday website and use the code ‘THESEFOURWALLS’ when prompted at the checkout. Please note the discount is not available in conjunction with any other offer and does not apply to delivery charges.
Images two, three and four via Bold Tuesday; all other photographgy by Abi Dare
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