The Imaginative Food and Map Illustrations of Aly Miller

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Photo by Kat Wegrzyniak

Aly Miller

Aly Miller in her home studio

Once Aly Miller combined her longtime passions of drawing and writing with her newfound love for visual storytelling, Miller’s childhood dream job of writing and illustrating books came true. Known for her imaginative map illustrations, Miller is fascinated by the authentic cultural landscapes of places, crafting each map with an emphasis on relationships between a place’s social and natural features. “I like to map the soul of a place,” she says. “What makes it special or unique, or what a local feel is like, are things I’m really interested in.” 

Whether it is for a magazine or travel guide, a map drawn by Miller usually features a place’s essential institutions alongside its hidden gems or off-the-beaten-path haunts. When illustrating small businesses, Miller likes to emphasize unique aspects about the building or what they sell. “Visuals are powerful, and so are symbols,” she remarks. Miller has mapped the Jewish gastronomy of Detroit, the history of espresso in New York, the neighborhood charms of coastal Mar Vista in Los Angeles and pubs along Ireland’s west coast, to name a few.

She also incorporates her passions for locally grown food and sustainable farming into colorful culinary illustrations for cookbooks, brands and home goods. In fact, Miller annually illustrates a calendar highlighting seasonal fruits and vegetables, affirming, “Farmers are some of the hardest-working people on the planet.” A logo for Martha’s Vineyard Pasta, packaging for Joe Coffee Company, menus for California-based Robin Sushi and branding for Nourish Organic Juice Bar in Wisconsin’s Lake Country have been just a handful of Miller’s projects.

Awesome Art Teacher

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Miller has loved to draw since she was little. “It was always my favorite pastime,” she recalls. “I loved art class and had a really awesome art teacher, Mrs. Miller, at Richards School. She let me spend my lunch hours in her art room to just draw and have fun with markers and paper.”

As a teenager, Miller paired together her hobbies of art and writing by designing logos for concepts she cared about. While studying human geography at UW-Madison, she became interested in the relationships between cartography, artistry and social justice. “I spent a semester learning about font hierarchy and color schemes, and it lit up a whole new area of interest for me,” Miller remembers. 

She helped form a Slow Food chapter in Madison, which inspired her to write about community-driven food initiatives like urban farming and farmers markets. “I didn’t know how to cook and didn’t grow up doing much in the kitchen,” Miller notes. “I loved getting in touch with what was in season and learning about fruits and vegetables I’d never seen or used. There was a big emphasis on where things came from.”

While learning techniques on YouTube and SkillShare, Miller carefully studied Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook, drawn by its handwritten recipes and black-and-white illustrations. “I found it really charming to look at.”

Naturally Grown

Miller moved to New York after college and worked at Certified Naturally Grown for seven years, sharpening her skills as a graphic designer and illustrator. She blogged for Nosher on the side, building a portfolio of food and map illustration work. Miller developed her own style over time, especially while working with nonprofit organization GrowNYC. “They needed a calendar to show what items were in season every month of the year,” she mentions. “They put up this huge banner I made that spans the width of a ten-foot tent. It was often the backdrop for when guest chefs came in for cooking demos.”

In 2021, however, Miller experienced an unexpected health event that caused a sudden shift in her physical abilities, leaving her navigating limitations she had never faced before. “I couldn’t do any work,” she shares. “I went from being a very active person to my body suddenly changing before my eyes in the span of a week.” 

After moving back to Milwaukee, Miller was eventually able to resume her creative endeavors with the help of family and her friend and fellow New York-by-way-of-Milwaukee graphic designer Grace Blumberg, while also making a few ergonomic adjustments. “I learned to work smarter, and with time, I could draw again,” Miller continues. “I’m always learning how to listen to my health and support myself, and I ask for help when I need it.”

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Photo by Kat Wegrzyniak

Aly Miller - Calendar

One of Aly Miller's illustrated calendar's by her desk

She adds, “I’d love to get to know other people who have challenges making the art they want to make. There’s a lot of us with long COVID or invisible autoimmune disabilities, and it’s easy to think that you’re alone in it. Sometimes I reach out to people on Instagram who have shared what they’re going through. Great friendships can be formed that way.” 

2023 brought Miller good fortune when her previous connection with GrowNYC ended up landing her illustrations into two cookbooks, Madame Fromage’s Adventures in Cheese by Tenaya Darlington and Start Here: Instructions for Being a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly. “It was all because of that banner,” she confirms.

Recent collaborations of Miller’s include Native Roots Farm Foundation on a map of Indigenous plants in the Delaware region, illustrated without borders and in Nanticoke and Unami languages, as well as with Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Indigenous plant illustrations. Locally, Miller has collaborated with Milwaukee Magazine on walking and trail map illustrations, Pabst Mansion on a map of historical Pabst buildings and Jenni Yolo on a map of her favorite local antique shops.

Milwaukee’s Hidden Gems

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Photo by Kat Wegrzyniak

Aly Miller - Illustrating on an iPad

Aly Miller works on a new map of Milwaukee on her iPad

When she is not illustrating, Miller can often be found at vendor markets around Milwaukee. Many of her past illustrations are available for sale as prints. One piece of Miller’s highlighting local produce in New York continues to be a best-seller.

“It’s important to put yourself out there even if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing yet,” Miller attests. “If you’re drawing from your heart and soul, people will gravitate to that. Infusing something with love is universal, and for me, it was the enjoyment and admiration for everything you can find that grows in your area that you can eat and cook with and share with other people.”

She has embroidered hats by Bay View ThreadWorks, totes, mugs, tea towels, postcards and many more goodies for purchase in her emporium. “I have a lot of room to play with my illustrations, and it’s been really fun to see what brings new life to work that I’ve made already.”

Miller will be vending at Tosa Farmers Market Saturday, Oct. 4. A current goal of hers is to create a map of Milwaukee’s hidden gems, with a community action item where folks may submit their favorite art, architectural and cultural destinations to her for inclusion. Got an idea? Submit it here. Visit Aly Miller’s website at https://www.aly-miller.com/ to shop or get in touch.