What is Map Design or Cartography

car·tog·ra·phy/kärˈtägrəfē/ is the science or practice of drawing maps.
Just as the craft of Graphic Designing, this is something which needs in-depth study in order to master it.

This art and science of map-making are traditionally practiced by cartographers. Drawing of maps came to be as part of an effort to understand our environment. Explorers have traveled far and wide in quest of an accurate map since the 1700s.

Modern day cartographers still hold regular jobs in their specialization, thanks to political and geological changes.

Cartography is made up of two Greek words, Cartis meaninng "map" and Graphos meaning "to draw or write".

Modern practitioners of Cartography are much better off than their ancient counterparts because today they have the advantage of computers and other equipment to make their maps more precise.

Even we design professionals can get off doing a few cartography projects with our design gears.


But of course we too have to do a sound amount of learning into the GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and technicalities to be able to do justice to the field of Cartography.

My Map Designs / Cartography

To be politically correct I cannot call myself a cartographer because cartography was only one part of my Graphic Design education.

However in today's life-styles of open-source and transparency a cartographer or a 3D modeler or a qualified writer cannot push out the talents who pursue all this without any specialist education. However they have had access to all the technology along with an enthusiasm to learn about it informally. The less fortunate who would never have had the luxury if not for this internet revolution like the poor part of the developing world are the gainers here.

I started as a 3D Modeler, an animator, an artist much before the Photoshop, 3D revolution and even the internet. We have had to slog and spend many hours on end to get to our goals those days. I remember I got my research material for my animation summer project during my masters by getting the material downloaded onto several floppy disks, from a library owner who had a server (which was a mammoth machine). This was during the age when the monitor screens were blue.

My work life would have been a disaster if I considered technology as my competitor which gave short-cut methods to people who did not have to go through years in the mill learning and getting experience in the same in a much much shorter span. Technology helped keep the quality. With this being said, I must say if not for technology and new gadgets springing up each day and social-networking, many may not have been able to progress very fast up the ladder. So today people who take mediocre seats in the hall of fame are those who have held hard to their traditional ways alone. The best thing perhaps would be to use these traditional groundings to see how technology can help better them as well as things required in today's world.

However, may I remind that lucky are those who have learned about art, animation, writing the traditional way for I can't deny that it is much sought after even till today. Talking about this phenomenon, I must mention that I will talk to you about this very important topic very soon on another occasion.

Now let me explain what is cartography :o)