MAPS AND
INFORMATION
Locator/Point Map
A locator or point map finds a specific location
It is probably the most valuable map used in
business
In contrast a topographical map provides an
accurate description of areas, roadways,
rivers, political boundaries, etc.
Both locator/point and topographical maps
have a scale so that distance can be
Locator or Point Maps: Where is it?
Look carefully at this map. How would you improve it?
Not all of the streets are labeled. Rivers are green?
Probably not every street/alley is shown, but we are not sure. Are they needed?
Color is used to
separate parts of the map.
Another “Hudson Coffee” Locator
Is this locator map better?
What other features are here?
The railroad tracks serve as a
non-roadway anchor. Other such anchors include prominent tall buildings,
waterways,
airports, hospitals, and stadiums.
Note that there are more Hudson
Peter Gundy Map
This map is for a client called “Black Sun Design”.
The map shown here is a “macro” view map, so it provides
information about the location of interest and surrounding roads and other geographic points or
anchors, so that a viewer can place themselves in the general area. Notice how the trees change color.
The main geographic points or anchors are the Thames river, the Putney Bridge, the “Underground” subway markers, a hotel church and school, and the Fulham Palace.
The large arrow indicates that “Black Sun” is located on the
Micro View Locator
Map for Black Sun
Gundy also draws a “micro” view locator map, so that when you find Fulham Palace, you can use the map of the grounds to locate parking, and follow the black
arrows to find the offices of Black Sun Designs.
The micro view map omits the geographic information about the surrounding neighborhood and streets.
Note the use of color in both maps. The first map highlights the
palace in a soft green and the neighborhood in 80% black. The side streets are 30% black and the main roadways are white. The
Geographic
Projection
Map
The idea here is to offer the viewer a systematic sequence from a large area to a smaller area. In this case, from Europe to
Switzerland to a region called, Basel Land, whose largest city is Basel, where the International
School of Basel (ISB) is located.
How to Create a Locator/Point Map
Generally start with a
topographical map, such as the one shown here of Sacramento, CA
We want to find a business located in the downtown area. The star marks the spot.
Outline Major Roadways
Outline the major roadways into the down town area.
Do not worry about the
precision of your drawing at this point; you will smooth out these curves later.
Grid Pattern for Downtown
After you finish the downtown grid, you can delete the topographic map.
Now you need to rescale and
straighten the roads.
The roads serve to designate the long distance travel
Basic Locator Map Outline
At this point the funny little
roadways and relative size of everything does not work.
You need to
emphasize that “all roads lead to Rome,” which is to say that all roads lead to the
Rotate and Straighten
At this point the funny little
roadways and relative size of everything does not work.
You need to
emphasize that “all roads lead to Rome,” which is to say that all roads lead to the
address you want the reader to find.
Rescale the Downtown
We need to make the downtown
bigger. The image is small relative to the expanse of the roadways.
Delete the original roads. Resize road and group pairs of connected
How Does this End?
We must add features of the roads into the downtown and guide the
reader to the location.
This is the version that Before and After
Magazine used to
Building Floor Maps
Commonly building floor maps show various rooms and openings between these rooms or hallways.
This is a map of the ground floor for the National Gallery of Victoria.
Note the use of color to emphasize various areas, but generally the color serves no other purpose here except to provide contrast.
Criticism: The “you are here”
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum floor map is simple, not very
colorful but gives a lot of detailed information using numbers to mark rooms. Below this map (not
printed here) is a legend that explains what is in each room, such as
209The Wright Brothers & The
Invention of the Aerial Age
Beck’s 1933 London Underground Map
This is not a
locator map, per se, but is meant to help users of the subway find the right train for their travel plans. Note that the stations are named after areas in and around London, but you do not know from the map where you will find the
DC Metro
Map
The DC Metro map is the modern
equivalent of Beck’s famous Underground map. Note that the
subway lines are colored to match their name, red
line, blue line, etc. The major stations have large circles to indicate
transfer
City on a Plate
These commercial ventures are prints of city maps on dining plates. Notice how color is used. Blue is water, green is parkland, red are buildings and white lines are roads, with white space
This is a
common (and effective)
isopleth state map that shows areas with the same (or
similar) values with the same color shading. The areas that stand out are those that are darkest in this particular map, which are the states with the greatest tax
increases (more than 10%).
The data in this
map comprise a list of ten best and ten worse market in the U.S. for
single-family real estate investment
properties.
This type of infomap should probably be
produced in a table. The city tags make this a busy visual. Also, why are these cities the best and worse?
