“…show that we care how the map looks…”
Everyone go read < this article > now!
Cartography has always needed better designers more than it needs better technicians, no more than now. But technicians are always more bullish and pushy than mere artists. When I studied cartography in the early 80s, my course as split into the “Maths” stream and the “Graphics” stream. Those of us in the latter group felt looked down on by the faculty as lesser, as not smart enough to do the techy stuff.
When cartography started to become computerised in the mid 90s, ugly maps were seemingly universally accepted by the industry because they were new and shiny technology. ESRI, ARC-INFO and other such programs were lauded, despite their shitty type placement, garish colour palettes, inappropriate fonts and all-around unattractiveness.
I’m no longer a practicing cartographer but hopefully this new era will let the designers - or storytellers - rise to the fore again. The current options seem to be ugly digital maps with no design input, or pretty maps by graphic designers that fail basic cartographic rules (like, um, accuracy).
