This column is sponsored by ESRI
The art of cartography is always going to be of value, because it is the skill of effective map design for maximum and authoritative communication. Cartography is just as relevant as graphic design for the web or for the printed page, even though there may be less of both taking place. While computers have made it easier to communicate without artistic skills and sensibilities, they have also provided limitless tools for design and data amalgamation.
Maps are a means to communicate and visualize landmarks through abstraction. Even when we get to the point of representing our world with a highly detailed digital reality, the quick, portable and easy means of communicating with a paper map will still have relevance. Where there’s a continued desire for this abstraction, there will be a need for interpreters of reality that can condense and represent our world in an artistic and accurate manner.
Motivations for Abstraction
The traditional paper format of a map allows us to record details about our planet in a portable form that doesn’t require electricity or connectivity to the Internet. While those of us in the developed world may believe there’s such connectivity everywhere, the fact is that only 22% of the world population has access to the Internet.
A paper map can be easily published and passed along so that others might find their way. While the need to navigate is a primary purpose, there’s also the interest in condensing the cultural, architectural, natural, and other details of a place. A map can become a means to get a mental picture of a place without traveling physically, and the better the skill of the mapmaker, the more readily this arm chair traveling can occur.
Authoritative Information
Digital tools and the highly accurate and easily updated aerial images of today mean that maps can be much more accurate today with far less effort. The fact that maps are looked on as authoritative sources of information means that the mapmaker holds a certain amount of responsibility for recreating a location with detail and accuracy.
There are liabilities of mapmakers, particularly in areas or applications of high hazard. There have been continuing discussions about the liability of GPS and navigation devices, but the same holds true for liability of those that map our world. This is particularly true when the map products are responsible for portraying or capturing risk, such as in flood mapping. Cartography becomes a critical skill here, not for its artistic merit, but for its exactitude.
Maps as Communication
A map will continue to be a necessary step to provide perspective for any conversation related to place. Words can only go so far in conveying details about a location. A map puts a place into perspective, with added detail that incorporates surroundings to put the place in context. A well-designed map diversifies itself by providing a visually stimulating and intuitive means of communication.
Distilling the essence of a location in simple written form is a skill that’s been important for centuries. The fact that we can now look an address up easily means that we use this skill far less frequently, but it’s not going to disappear from relevance.
Exposure to the ease of mapping tools and map representation might even spur more people to make maps, and add more personal details to online mapping tools. There’s already the possibility to add photos to mapping interfaces, and to create map details ourselves. We’re likely to see considerably more map customization tools that might border on the cartographic skill set. It would certainly be fun to share map creation tools more broadly, and to peruse a large virtual map gallery with many personal takes on the same place. We might even cultivate a few map making stars this way, following map makers in the same way that we follow other artists.
Cartography as Diversifier
I’d love to see an online mapping portal really distinguish itself by developing a stunning and user-friendly look and layout that incorporates better design. As part of this exercise, I went online to take stock of Google Maps, Microsoft’s Live Search Maps and MapQuest. My takeaway from the look and feel of these sites is a resounding blah. They’re just not visually stimulating the same way that a well designed map can be.
To date, the popular online mapping sites are designed for ease of viewing, but I’d take a local tourist map over most outputs from online sites if I’m traveling. The well-crafted tourist map is the easiest means to identify points of interest to a visitor, and does a good job of condensing points of interest without the need for a personal guide.
Cartography is a relevant skill set, but not as primary a pursuit as it once was. GIS has trumped cartography as a career foundation, but a background in geography and GIS, coupled with graphic design, has the potential to make some of the best cartographers we’ve ever seen.
Read what Jeff Thurston has to say on this topic here.
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Well done matt & Jeff. We have 10 cartographers here in Fremantle, Western Australia making some truly excellent products using a combination range of software from GIS, Microstation and Graphic design software to create some very innovative and excellent cartographic products. I aggree that we must move ahead in terms of innovation, keeping up with the latest technology to present to the user a true map that the user can get the information he needs clearly and easily. We are striving to stay at the “cutting edge” and will continue to do so. Keep up the good work at Vector 1.
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