Man, this morning I opened my mapping software feeling all pumped. Typed “1939 Europe” in the search bar like a total noob, hoping for magic. Obviously got squat. Big blank canvas staring back. Coffee felt mandatory right then.
Hitting the History Books (Well, Webpages)
Grabbed my lukewarm coffee and dove down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. Needed the big pieces for 1939. Scribbled messy notes:
- Germany? Huge. Had just swallowed Austria and Czechoslovakia whole, greedy beast.
- Poland? Smack in the middle, looking super nervous. Gotta show that vulnerable shape.
- Important bits? Danzig? Free City but basically Nazi puppet? Yeah, big red flag. That Polish Corridor slicing through Germany to the sea? Pure tension waiting to snap. Jotted these on a sticky note plastered to my monitor.
Building the Bones
Fired up the vector tool. Started roughing out the basic shapes. Eastern Europe was this weird patchwork quilt. Poland’s borders felt especially fiddly – that curve on top, the bite out below. Redrew that line like five times. Germany wasn’t much better, especially down south near Austria. Kept zooming way in, clicking point-to-point, feeling like a slow-motion sculptor.
Then came the guts. Marking Danzig with a star symbol and doing that angry red outline? Felt important. That stupid Polish Corridor – I drew it first as a big bold path, then scaled it back. Needed to show it was Poland’s lifeline through German land, like a fragile thread. Highlighted those zones hard with bright yellow fill.
Staring Contest with the Map
Stepped back. Looked… cluttered. Label pile-up near Warsaw and Berlin looked like a toddler scribbled. Panic mode! Moved Poland’s label southeast, shoved Danzig’s name right next to its star. Changed cities to tiny black dots for capitals, kept names minimal. Big font for country names only. Took ages dragging labels millimetre by millimetre.
Color Chaos and Final Stare
Used this washed-out sand colour for land – anything bolder screamed modern political map. Germany? Went with grey. Felt right, cold. Poland got this faded tan. Gave the Polish Corridor that nasty mustard yellow, made it pop against the duller colours. Danzig glowed red like an infected wound. Added a tiny line for the general front just for context.
Looked at it again. Could I feel the pressure? The waiting disaster? Danzig’s red spot, the garish corridor choking Germany, Poland squeezed? Yeah. Job done. Saved it, turned off the screen. Sat there thinking about how different that map would look just a couple months later. Gave me chills.
