Topographic – Page 2 – Navigating the interactive landscape.

Topographic is a blog about navigating the evolving digital landscape. It explores communication, technology, and interactive media from a graphic designer's perspective.

Topographic is run by John Rudolph, the Creative Director at Map Agency, a graphic design studio in Sandy Hook, CT. The articles and projects showcased here are the result of classes taken in the Interactive Media and Communications Graduate program at Quinnipiac University.

Recent Projects

Your Brand's Favorite New Topping

Pepperoni is a super thick display font designed for the four Ps of successful marketing: 1. Pricing, 2. Promotion, 3. Packaging, and 4. Pizza. It contains all 26 uppercase letters and all the punctuation needed for popping out.

Hungry For More?

Make Your Wordmark Work

Our communications landscape is flooded with fonts, so how do you choose a typeface that's going to help your brand stand out? In this article, I explore the difference between typography and lettering in logo design.

See Case Study

Attention Please!

How can designers help brands attract customers without distracting them? In this white paper, I explore the causes of our depleted attention spans, and look at new ways for businesses to harness technology more thoughtfully.

Read White Paper

Upstage Your Newtown Neighbor

Built in 1931, Edmondt Town Hall houses a 500-seat theatre for concerts, theatrical performances, and engaging speakers. I developed a strategic social media campaign to help raise brand awarness of this historic gem.

Watch Presentation

Recent Blogs

Empathy for the Audience

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand another's perspective. It’s our attempt to experience somebody else’s point of view, and one of the most natural ways to do that is through storytelling. The best stories always leave the audience with a new sense of understanding. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the best storytellers have the unique ability to create a world that's empathetic to their audience. How do animators make imaginative characters and whimsical worlds so believable? Among the most important considerations are the sounds they carefully choose, and the environments they build for their characters to inhabit. …

By John

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February 14, 2026

Color, Concepting, Craft, and the Creative Process

I’ve always been slightly envious of those with an exceptional taste for color. Maybe it’s because of my struggle to choose the right pairing for a brand identity. Or, more likely, perhaps it’s because color has always seemed so subjective. Even after spending countless hours picking Pantone chips, I’ll often feel like the various combinations I’ve selected are wrong. Of course, I always present my selections with purpose and intention, but I can’t help but think that a better combination exists. This painstaking process is the reason I so often resort to black. Reading & Writing Animated Storytelling, by Liz …

By John

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February 8, 2026

Seeking the Right Storytelling Structure

We all have a story to tell. While some might have more adventurous experiences than others, everybody has the luxury, or burden, of communicating their personal narrative however they creatively choose. Hemingway, for example, had a way of getting straight to the point. Kerouac, on the other hand, wrote with a stream of consciousness. Substance matters, of course, but authors like these taught us that style does, too. How we tell our stories is arguable as important as the stories we tell. Reading & Writing Animated Storytelling, by Liz Blazer Chater 2: StorytellingIn Chapter 2 of Animated Storytelling, author Liz …

By John

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January 30, 2026

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Contact

Phone: 203-304-1846
Email: johnrudolph@gmail.com
Instagram: @map.agency