Normally when people write end of year best-ofs, they publish them before the turn of new year. But I’m counting down my five favorite maps of 2014 right now just to make sure there weren’t any map contenders created in the last seconds of 2014 … or maybe because I was just procrastinating.

Like my 2013 roundup, this isn’t intended as an end-all be-all survey of mapmaking from last year, but rather an opportunity to give kudos to the maps that I personally found uniquely impressive or inspiring.

In the broad world of cartography and the geospatial, 2014 can best be summed up as “full steam ahead”. Web map technologies continue to evolve and impress (Turf.js made its debut right before the years’ end). Peer education like Maptime is expanding rapidly (I had the pleasure of attending the first Twin Cities maptime in November). But most of all, lots and lots of folks made lots and lots of nice maps.

For me, the biggest map-related development in 2014 was the rise of data journalism, exemplified by the launches of FiveThirtyEight and The Upshot. Their work is not strictly cartographic of course, but the sort of map-related work they do promises to elevate the quality of thematic cartography and geographic analysis being delivered to the general net-browsing audience. The launches haven’t been without their growing pains- FiveThirtyEight in particular had a particularly instructable map-related gaffe- and the hackneyed “X Maps that Explain Y” listicles that float around probably won’t disappear anytime soon. But nevertheless, I believe data and explainer journalism will be an important and valuable source for cartographic communication.

Anyway, onto the maps.

5. Cameron Booth - Highways of the United States

By now, anything and everything has been represented in the style of Beck’s iconic London underground map. What makes Booth’s latest project stand out amongst the Beck pastiches is its immense scope and attention to detail. A true work of art, whether your looking at the full map or just one of the individual states.

4. Enigma Labs - Temperature Anomalies

A very rich dataset, elegantly presented with a rich interface for exploration. Interactive maps don’t get much more impressive than this.

3. Joey Cherdarchuk/Darkhorse Analytics - Breathing City

A have a soft spot for the medium of map gifs, and this highly detailed, animated look at day-to-day movement in New York is probably the most impressive map gif to date.

2. Barry Richards - FindARoom

This website, developed for the University of South Wales, pulls up a nifty set of maps to help people navigate the University’s confusing buildings and campuses. In the age of Google Maps, it’s tempting to think that the world doesn’t need any more wayfinding maps- but this website proves that notion is quite wrong. Where was one of these for my freakin’ school?

1. Owen Mundy - I Know Where Your Cat Lives

It’s an iconoclastic choice, but as far as I’m concerned this is a no-brainer pick for the best map of 2015. A map that yoinks geotagged photos of cats would, ordinarily, be a neat technological feat, but a bit too banal of a subject matter to heap praise upon. What transforms I Know Where Your Cat Lives into a true masterpiece is that those cat pictures are merely a cutesy means to deliver an intense rhetorical message: be careful what you put online. It’s a share-friendly map with a cutting and timely message.

2015, by the way, is being recognized as the International Map Year. Happy mapping in this upcoming year!