VTGCLT is popping up on June 18th at 514 N. College Street for the fifth annual Summer Market! Come out and spend the day shopping with over 60 of the region’s best vintage & handmade vendors. Admission to the market is FREE from 11am-6pm! Get in an hour early at 10am for $5 to get first pick of all the goods.
Leading up to the market, we’ll be sharing vendor spotlight posts that give you a chance to meet some of our amazing vendors in advance of the market. We are really excited to welcome Amanda and Paul of EDIA Maps to their first Vintage Charlotte Market. We just love the fun and informative maps that EDIA is bringing with them to market, here is Amanda with the story behind the adventures:
We’re a two-person, map-making team of North Carolinians comprised of myself (Amanda Fisher) and Paul Bright. We’re the makers of the Great NC BBQ Map, Great NC Beer Map, and Charlotte Adventure Map.
Our focus is on niche maps that turn the everyday into an adventure. Using an infographic approach, our style combines the convenience of a map with the depth of a guidebook. Our maps don’t just give you points along the road. Aside from symbols that tell you a lot about each stop, each map is surrounded with graphics and details on the history and culture of the topic. We think when you understand the many layers of what you’re experiencing, you’re able to derive more from it, and that difference in perspective is what turns the everyday into an adventure.
For both of us, travel and discovery are our passions. We both love to road-trip around the US and explore the huge world we live in, but we maintain our spirit of adventure no matter where we are. It’s so easy to fall into a routine at home and do the same things with your spare time, but you can discover so much more when you approach your hometown and home state like a traveler would. That’s really the whole idea of EDIA. It’s an acronym that stands for “Every Day Is an Adventure,” something that became a motto for us years ago.
We live in such a beautiful and diverse state that we really believe every part of NC has something to offer. One thing we love about our maps is that they get you into parts of the state that you might not normally visit — those backroads, small towns, and forgotten neighborhoods — and visiting those places has given us a much deeper understanding and love for our state.
The idea of map-making really grew out of a shared love for travel, maps, travel guides and memorabilia. We both wanted to more fully integrate travel into our lifestyle and work. One day the map-making idea just clicked, and we realized what a perfect fit it was for both of us, Paul the cartographer, and me the creative force. And because of how much we use maps and travel guides, we see all that’s missing from that genre and have so many ideas for what can be done there.
We really do feel that adventure can be found anywhere. Discovery is the biggest thing for us when traveling. Even though you might have a destination in mind, there’s always unexpected surprises along the way if you give yourself time to pay attention and uncover them.
