3D Terrain Art

Design it yourself

Most custom map art means describing what you want and waiting for someone to draw it. This one you build yourself. Open the interactive map, find your location, and set every option before you order. What you see is what gets printed.

Every option is included in the price. Water, trails, roads, metal location markers, and the engraved title block do not cost extra. One flat rate, however you build it.

Any place, any scale

There is no minimum or maximum area. Frame up a single hill behind your house, a national park, an entire mountain range, or the whole continental United States. The map covers the globe and the relief is generated from real elevation data at whatever scale you choose.

Elevation

How dramatic the relief looks is your call. Three modes:

• True to life. Vertical scale matches the real terrain. Best for genuinely mountainous ground where the landscape does the work on its own.
• Flush with the frame. The tallest point sits level with the frame edge for a clean, contained look.
• Exaggerated. Vertical scale is pushed well beyond reality. This is the one to pick for flat or rolling country, where true-to-life would print as an almost featureless slab.

Water

Add lakes, rivers, and coastline as a separate printed layer in any of the nine colours below. Marine Blue is the obvious choice, but a contrasting colour reads well against pale terrain.

Trails and roads

Trace any trail and any road you want on the map, each printed in a colour of your choosing. Useful for a route you have hiked, a drive you take every summer, or the road to a family cabin.

Location markers

Mark a specific spot with a real metal pin, set into the print. Available in silver, gold, black, and rose gold.

Title block

Add an engraved metal title block in silver or gold, mounted on a raised platform built into the terrain itself rather than stuck on the frame. Align it left, centre, or right to suit your composition.

No glass in the way

There is no glazing over the terrain. The relief is open to the air, so the surface is there to be touched, and the contour layers catch raking light the way a glazed piece never can. Choose true-to-life elevation on steep ground and the peaks will sit proud of the frame face, standing out past the moulding rather than trapped behind it.

Colours

Terrain, water, trails, and roads can each be set independently. Nine matte PLA colours:

• Ivory White
• Bone White
• Nardo Gray
• Charcoal
• Caramel
• Terra Cotta
• Dark Green
• Marine Blue
• Dark Red

Matte finish throughout, so the surface catches light along the contour lines instead of glaring under a lamp.

What people put on them

The map covers the whole planet, so the piece is only as interesting as the place you choose. Some that work particularly well:

• Mountains and ranges you have climbed, skied, or grew up looking at
• National and provincial parks, where the terrain is the whole point
• Hiking and backpacking routes, traced as a coloured trail across the relief
• Ski resorts, with runs marked as trails and the lodge pinned
• Lakes and cottage country, with the water layer in and the dock marked
• Coastlines and islands, where the land meets water in high relief
• Race courses and rides, a marathon route or a long climb traced end to end
• Somewhere that matters, a hometown valley, a wedding location, a first summit

Specifications

How ordering works

1. Find your location on the interactive map and frame up the area you want.
2. Set your options. Elevation mode, terrain colour, water, trails, roads, markers, title block, frame finish, and orientation.
3. Place your order. Because you designed it yourself, there is no mockup approval step and no waiting on an email before we start. If anything about your selections needs clarifying, we will reach out.
4. We print and frame it, which takes 1 to 2 weeks.
5. We ship it with tracking, 3 to 6 days across Canada and the US.

Frequently asked questions

Can you do any location?

Anywhere on Earth. The interactive map covers the globe, and the piece is printed from real topographic elevation data for whatever area you frame up.

Is there a limit on how big or small an area I can choose?

No. You can zoom right in on a single hill or pull back far enough to take in an entire country. The relief scales to whatever you frame.

My area is flat. Will it look like anything?

Yes, if you pick the exaggerated elevation mode. It pushes the vertical scale well past reality so that gentle river valleys, ridges, and rolling ground actually read as relief. True-to-life on flat country prints close to a blank slab, which is why the option exists.

Does it have glass over it?

No. The terrain is open faced, so you can run your hand over it. Depending on the elevation mode and how steep your location is, the highest peaks can sit proud of the frame face.

Do the extras cost more?

No. Water, trails, roads, metal location markers, and the engraved title block are all included in the $199 price. It is a flat rate no matter how much you add.

Will the roads and text from the map browser be printed?

No. The text, roads, and boundary lines shown while you are choosing your location are navigation aids only. They are not part of the print. The only roads that appear are the ones you deliberately add as a printed layer.

Is there a mockup to approve?

Not in the usual sense. You build the design yourself in the configurator, so what you set up is what we print. That also means it goes into production faster than a piece that needs a mockup approved first.

What is it made of?

The terrain is 3D printed in matte PLA, a plant-derived plastic, at a 0.2 mm layer height. Water, trails, and roads are printed as separate coloured layers. Location markers are real metal pins and the optional title block is engraved metal.

Can I have more than one trail or road?

Yes. Trails and roads are drawn to your specification, and each can be set to its own colour so multiple routes stay readable against each other.

How long until it arrives?

Roughly 2 to 3 weeks from the day you order. Production takes 1 to 2 weeks and shipping is 3 to 6 days.

Do you ship to the United States?

Yes. We ship across Canada and the United States, typically 3 to 6 days in transit with tracking.

How do I care for it?

Because there is no glass, dust settles into the valleys over time. A soft dry brush or a puff of compressed air clears it out. Avoid solvents. Keep it out of prolonged direct sunlight and away from heat sources such as radiators, and never leave it in a parked car in summer, as PLA softens at relatively low temperatures.

Can I return it?

Custom pieces cannot be returned, which is why the configurator shows you the design before you order. Our standard warranty still covers defects in manufacturing and workmanship.

Prefer engraved wood?

If you want a flat engraved piece rather than printed relief, our custom engraved lake map board comes in six sizes, and our custom epoxy lake map board sets the water as a hand-poured resin inlay.