Case Study on Maps

What first inspired me to create a map was the fact that I myself am very creative, and have a hobby and interest in trains. Trains being a form of transport obviously go to different places and so have a functional purpose, but also creates a visual landscape which I find fascinating. Before creating my own map I looked at various sorts of maps, and as I like to travel, already had an idea of the forms and conventions of an everyday map, and network map.

Here is an official network map of Arriva Trains Wales.

Here is my version of an Arriva Trains Wales network map

In terms of form, maps can appear ‘busy’ and sometimes a bit daunting, but they always have some kind of order as they need to be interpreted. Maps have a purpose and that is to help you find where you want to go, or encourage you to go somewhere. All the detail therefore needs to be a good representation or accurate indication of what would be visible in reality. Grid lines and scales are sometimes used to pinpoint places and distances accurately e.g ordnance survey and AA road maps. Street grids and transport networks also give a sense of distance and scale. (The eye naturally seems to follow roads or rail lines.) There might also be contour lines to show the height of the land. There might be other institutional information like compass points and often an actual picture of a compass for graphic ornamentation.

Colour usually plays a big part in maps as it not only draws the eye to certain things but also acts as a reference by using certain conventions that we recognise. For example big expanses of green usually means rural countryside, or parks, or greens. Blue is used for water - rivers, coastline etc. There are also known colour schemes for roads - blue for motorways, green for A roads, brown for B roads and black for small lanes etc. This all helps to build up a picture of the geography of the land.

Diagrams also play a big part in helping us put the location of things and places into context; they are always of relevance as they depict places of interest and provide a familiar landscape as to the viewer’s whereabouts. These might include historical monuments such as churches, attractions such as zoos or national parks and transport interchanges like stations.

Maps are generally respected and trusted for being accurate and this tends to be reflected in the production process where they are very professional - mass production in high colour and of a good quality. Sophisticated computer programmes will undoubtedly be used to create such maps as ordnance survey and London Underground. Other maps will just be throwaway items and therefore don’t need the same degree of quality - eg a map of a zoo. Tube maps actually use their own typeface, designed specifically for London Transport:

The typeface designed by Edward Johnston in 1915 for Transport for London was later emulated by Jonathan Paterson in 1994. Apart from a few similarities in the two typefaces, the key characters that fitted closer to the original were the: . , ; : ' " ! ? These typefaces were fittingly called 'Transport'.

In terms of my own map, I particularly enjoyed merging a few real life places with fictional creations of my own. An example would be Martlebury Museum which is based on the Temple of Artemis, has the roof of Sony Tower in New York and has windows in the style of a lego city building! I hand drew all my own diagrams and edited them accordingly in Photoshop. I based the idea of the tourist rail map of ‘Gainsridgeshire’ (the name of my fictional county) on a tourist road map of a district of France. I am very enthused by the end result and it has inspired me to create other maps; and also see more of the world so that I can base further creations on real life places.