It started years earlier in Winter Park, Colorado.
Charles and I met while working at Winter Park Resort. I was a snowboard instructor in the winter and a downhill mountain bike instructor in the summer. I was also racing downhill MTB and working with the resort’s marketing team as an athlete. Charles was the resort’s lead graphic designer, working on everything from ads to menus to signage and of course, trail map updates.
We often crossed paths while on photoshoots for the resort, and before long we were spending our days off riding trails and skiing together.
One little fun fact is that we’ve both been featured on a trail map cover (I made the 2017 Trestle Bike Park trail map cover and Charles was the featured skier on the 2015 winter map cover)
Trevor on the left, Charles on the right
Despite working on maps, being featured on maps, and using maps regularly, neither of us imagined we’d eventually start a map design studio together.
After leaving Winter Park, our careers took different directions. Charles built a successful freelance design & photography business, while I found my way into illustration. Although we were working independently, we stayed in touch and collaborated on projects whenever the opportunity came up. During this time we both stayed in the outdoor world, building illustrations, websites, brands and photographs for renowned resorts, tourism destinations, outdoor brands, and publications.
What made the idea exciting was that our backgrounds complemented each other naturally.
Charles brought years of experience in branding, graphic design, photography and working directly with destination marketing teams. I brought a background in illustration, combined with years spent teaching, racing, and riding in mountain resorts.
Together, we understood both sides of the problem. We knew what both guests and operations needed, and how to communicate it visually.
Today, every project starts the same way. We spend time learning the destination, talking with the people who know it best, and understanding what makes it unique before we ever begin sketching.
Our goal isn’t simply to create beautiful maps.
It’s to help resorts communicate their identity, improve the guest experience, and create something that visitors remember and cherish long after they’ve gone home.
Looking back, Emberhouse Maps wasn’t built around a single project or a sudden idea. It grew out of years spent exploring mountains, working with resorts, and believing that the places we loved deserved maps that felt unique to them.
