Imagine you have a globe, like a ball. An azimuthal projection is like taking a picture of the Earth from far away and showing it on a flat surface. But since the Earth is round and the surface is flat, some parts might get stretched or squished a little. It's like putting a sticker on the globe and then flattening the sticker. This kind of map makes the North or South Pole the center and shows other places around it, but it might not show all the details very accurately.