A TRAVEL lover looking for a fitting way to record a trip round the world came up ended up devising a start-up business.

Rory Lawrence created MobyMaps – large, simple world maps printed onto cork pin-boards, into which travellers can pin snapshots, mementos and flags.

Rory, a 34-year-old freelance graphic and web designer from Mudeford, was inspired by the pin boards he had seen in hotels during two years of travel.

“I couldn’t find anything as cool as I’d imagined to pin photos of my travels to and all the places I’d been,” he said.

“So as a graphic designer with a keen interest in products and brands, and a family of carpenters, the idea to make my own was just a natural blend of my interests, and I thought I could put the skills I’d learnt from my father to good use.”

He sourced sustainable cork from Portugal and learned the skills he needed.

“I started trying to source partners to help produce the prints and frames, but to no avail, even going back to the cork farms in Portugal to see if they could help, but they couldn’t see the potential market,” he said.

“So eventually I decided to just build a workshop at home and start producing them properly myself.”

The maps, which come in four colours, are screen printed locally. “Each one is done by hand because with digital printing, you just don’t get the colour vibrancy,” said Rory.

He learned to make frames, adding to the rustic look of the maps.

The first maps, made of pallet wood and whatever cork he could get hold of, went down well in 2011 at Mudeford Arts Festival. He began selling them online this year.

A framed map, 1.6metres (5ft 3ins) wide, costs up to £245, while an unframed, or “skinny”, version costs £125.

He intends to introduce an option for customers to upload their own photos and have them printed as Polaroid-style snapshots which can be pinned to the boards. A percentage from each sale will go to a charity such as the Cambodian Children’s Trust, WWF or Sea Shepherd.

Rory hopes the business will also take off with businesses such as coffee shops and hotel chains. He intends to launch giant versions, four times the size of regular maps, costing £1,399.

With a stack of cork boards from Portugal currently filling his living room, Rory does all the work himself but hopes to open a workshop locally as the idea takes off.