About

Hi! I am Spyridon Staridas. Friends call me Spiros.
I am a Passionate cARTographer and a Map Artist!

These Days

I live on the beautiful island of Crete, Greece! I spend my days drawing maps, studying maps, writing about maps and basically breathing maps.

September 2021

I attended the Imagery in Action MOOC by Esri!

March 2021

I talked about cARTography and the process of map making in Kalo Mesimeri.

March 2021

I attended the Cartography MOOC by Esri for the second time, because repetition is the mother of learning!

November 2020

Certified on the Fundamentals of digital marketing by Google Digital Garage.

May 2020

The second edition of Città di Candia, my Cultural Map of the Old City of Heraklion, was published.

November 2019

Spent two months in Malta as a Lecturer and Course Supervisor for Spatial Analysis and Remote Sensing, on behalf of Epsilon Malta. I loved Malta!

May 2019

I attended the Cartography MOOC by Esri.

January 2019

I worked with Tom Patterson to translate the Equal Earth Political Map in Greek language!

January 2019

We explored with Andriani some hidden gems of our small city.

August 2018

My Story Map The Volcano of Santorini won the first place at the 2018 Esri Storytelling with Maps Contest.

July 2017

The Story Map Footpaths of Erissos, we made with Paths of Greece, won the third place at the 2017 Esri Storytelling with Maps Contest.

March 2017

We talked with Andriani on TV about maps and map making!

January 2017

I met Fivos, head of Paths of Greece and we travelled together to Fiscardo, a picturesque village in Kefalonia island, to map the Footpaths of Erissos. We’ ve made a great team since then and we collaborate until today, having accomplished tremendous work in hiking projects.

November 2012

STARIDAS GEOGRAPHY #MakingMapsPretty, my self-employing firm with main mission the application of GIS solutions and the production of high-quality, accurate, up-to-date and pretty maps, was founded.

September 2010 – July 2012

Attended for two years the three levels of GIS courses (Basic, Advanced and WebGIS) in the private school Gis Education, in collaboration with the GeoInformatics Center of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering in Athens, Greece.

June 2006

Moved to my home town, Heraklion Crete Greece where I established my own office with main mission to perform high-quality and accurate geoscience studies and environmental impact assessments, based on sophisticated Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

November 2006

Finished my Masters course in Engineering Project Management MSc (Eng) at the University of Leeds UK / Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences / School of Civil Engineering.