Strava Art – or GPS art as it is also known – is creating images by running, cycling or walking a specific route that forms a recognizable shape on a map; an artwork. We asked the Dutch Strava/GPS artist Sander Gabel – in the running world better known as Runbrandt – how he creates his art.
“Strava art is where you create, using your activities. For example, running in my case, but also cycling or even using a canoe to track your route, in a certain shape.
And this shape is always, very much prepared. So sometimes I get the question, do you just run and do it on the go? But that’s really not the case because it takes a lot of time and effort to make the perfect routes in order to create the Strava art.
Running a foxWith creating the Strava art, there are a couple different scenarios. First of all, I have one of my sons who asks; ‘Can you run a fox?’, for example. Then I pick a location close to home. I look at a piece that’s recognizable, for example, the head or tail or, a paw of the fox, and then I draw roughly around it, and make it a lot more beautiful on the go.
This can take days, sometimes weeks or even months. Where I come back to the drawing, make little iterations to make it a bit more beautiful. Leave it alone for a while, come back with a fresh look and mind and really dive into it a bit more.
But there are also instances where I work together with a brand. They often approach me with a very specific question. Like can you draw 5 to 10 kilometer GPS art of our products, starting and finishing at our office. Those questions are the most challenging ones, because with Strava art you obviously have the road or city grid. You just can’t draw everywhere because sometimes you have a building that you can’t cross or a waterway. So, that’s the biggest challenge. You really can’t use every line that you want to make.
What starts as an idea needs to be turned on to a map. So the way I’m doing that, is use plotaroute.com, which is just a route planning app, and look I for a recognizable shape, like a the hear or a tail or paw and draw from there.
But a couple of months ago, I was introduced to this new route sketching app, called Routesketcher. I actually met up with the creator of it, and ran some GPS art with him. Obviously. What his tool does is, you snap a drawing on the map, and then it creates the drawing for you.
For me that’s a really nice starting point, because it shows me where the options are. And from there, I export it, import it back to plotaroute, and there I do the fine tuning, to make it look near anatomically correct as possible, before I’m going to run it. So, yeah, that’s the way I’m, using the tools to create my art.
Atelier AmsterdamIn order to create Strava art, you obviously need streets. So the more populated or more roads you have in an area, the better and the less restrictions you have. So, typically cities work very well for that. That’s why I love to draw my drawings in Amsterdam, because there are a lot of streets there.
What I really love about the streets in Amsterdam, compared to some big cities, like San Francisco or Barcelona, where you have the grid is that we have more natural lines in Amsterdam, which makes it more easy to create more natural shapes.
But the difficulty is that not everything can be made. If you have, like the city grids that you have in San Francisco or Barcelona, you can basically create anything you want. But it looks like 80s video game style. I tend to make it as smooth as possible and that’s more suitable in Amsterdam.
Some of my art that came out best, are a killer whale that I did in Hilversum. But also this bird. This bird is very dear to me because not only is it my first full marathon GPS art, but I also ran it in honor of my father, who passed away a year exactly before I ran this one.
His favorite thing was, watching the birds on his balcony. So, when he was at the end phase of his life, we spoke about me running and me trying to do the marathon distance. I promised him to dedicate my first marathon to him. And it only made it more suitable and fitting to do it in the shape of a bird.
Almost arrestedTo get the perfect art, like the killer whale and bird, I sometimes have to cross streets where I can’t. Run over grass or jump over fences. So far it never caused problems. Although, I was running an elephant in London. To do the trunk I had to go into Kensington Gardens. There was a little fence, knee height, with some construction workers behind it. I jumped over the fence. I didn’t want some construction work to be in the way of my art. But as soon as I was running in the park, a voice came over the loudspeaker: ‘Jogger, remove yourself of the gardens, or you will be arrested.’ Turned out, I was in the royal gardens. So my elephant as a bit of a weird trunk now.
Drawings or shapes that I still would love to do? I don’t know, actually. I would love to do a bigger event. Like a small town 10k in GPS art or Strava art. That’s one of the things that are on my my bucket list.
And basically just get as many people as possible to try GPS art, Strava art. Really focus on the fun and creative side of running because I think in running, there’s too much focus on speed. To me, running is for everyone. And by focusing on speed, many people might not consider it the best fit for them, because they don’t consider themselves fast. By focusing on creating something fun and creative I think it opens up running for a lot more people.
So the whole Strava art thing really started as a hobby. I was actually inspired by a magazine in 2019 where this article was written about Strava art. That article is also the link to my name, because this was about a guy from Canada who called himself Cycle Angelo, as he made art on a bike. So, it only makes sense, as I’m a runner, to turn it into Runbrandt for me.
And as I said, it started as a hobby. Just for fun. But then it was picked up by the media. And some brands knew how to find me. So I started doing guided GPS art runs, and presentations together with running shops or running brands.
At this moment I’m really looking forward to the first, International Running Expo, dedicated to B2B, in Amsterdam. The International Running Expo is happening on the fourth and 5th of November, and I had the pleasure and honor to do a countdown timer where I’m counting down in GPS art to the actual expo.
For me this expo is a chance, for creators like myself, to meet with the brands, meet with the retailers and also connect with each other to exchange ideas, learn about running innovations, hear about, the latest trends in the industry.”
If you want to try Routesketcher yourself, you can use Sander Gabel's code to get 10 percent discount.
