Making Maps: DIY Cartography

Archive for 2009

Rethinking Maps

Posted in 01 What's A Map?, 04 Map-Making Tools, 09 Map Symbolization, 13 Multimedia Mapping, Deep Map Thoughts, Map Books, Map Cartoons, Map Police, tagged cartography - books, cartography - propositions, cartography - theory, comics - cartography - theory, comics - maps - theory, critical cartography - books, critical cartography - theory, maps - as propositions, maps - books, maps - theory on August 13, 2009| 4 Comments »

Lukewarm off the presses, a tome chock full of lofty thoughts on maps and mapping. The blurb about Rethinking Maps, edited by Martin Dodge, Rob Kitchin, and Chris Perkins (Routledge 2009), sez:

Maps are changing. They have become important and fashionable once more. Rethinking Maps brings together leading researchers to explore how maps are being rethought, made and used, and what these changes mean for working cartographers, applied mapping research, and cartographic scholarship. It offers a contemporary assessment of the diverse forms that mapping now takes and, drawing upon a number of theoretic perspectives and disciplines, provides an insightful commentary on new ontological and epistemological thinking with respect to cartography.

A useful overview of what typically gets called “critical cartography,” with a few other voices of reason mixed in.

Denis Wood and I contributed a chapter, a comic with plentiful notes (for those who can’t figure out the pictures). I linked our chapter below, but it works much better as a printed comic. I have about 10 paper copies, and can mail them to the first 10 people that email me (jbkrygier@owu.edu). Include a mailing address!

Debates rage, and tussles erupt, over the question…

Serious enough, I guess, to be included in a tome of high academic scribblings.

The editors have made the introductory and concluding chapters available as PDFs. Those too are linked below.

The book is expensive ($129.95!) and sales will mostly be to libraries. Check a copy out of your favorite library (or ask for it via inter-library loan) or email the author of a chapter you are interested in and ask if they are willing to share a copy.

Chapters in Rethinking Maps include:

1. Thinking about Maps (360k PDF) (Rob Kitchin, Chris Perkins and Martin Dodge)

2. Rethinking Maps and Identity: Choropleths, Clines and Biopolitics (Jeremy W. Crampton)

3. Rethinking Maps from a more-than-human Perspective: Nature-society, Mapping, and Conservation Territories (Leila Harris and Helen Hazen)

4. Web mapping 2.0 (Georg Gartner)

5. Modelling the Earth: A Short History (Michael F. Goodchild)

6. Theirwork: the Development of Sustainable Mapping (Dominica Williamson and Emmet Connolly)

7. Cartographic Representation and the Construction of Lived Worlds: Understanding Cartographic Practice as Embodied Knowledge (Amy Propen)

8. The 39 Steps and the Mental Map of Classical Cinema (Tom Conley)

9. The Emotional Life of Maps and Other Visual Geographies (Jim Craine and Stuart Aitken)

10. Playing with Maps (Chris Perkins)

11. Ce n’est pas le Monde [This is not the world] (2mb PDF) (John Krygier and Denis Wood)

Here is an easier to read PDF version of Ce N’est Pas le Monde.

12. Mapping Modes, Methods and Moments: A Manifesto for Map Studies (556k PDF) (Martin Dodge, Chris Perkins and Rob Kitchin)

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1923 Patented Cartogram

Posted in 03 Mappable Data, 09 Map Symbolization, Map History, tagged Cartograms - history, History of Cartography, Map Design, Maps - patents, statistical maps, thematic maps on July 9, 2009| 5 Comments »

Stop making cartograms! At least until permission is granted from the chap who holds the patent on them.

Karl Karsten’s “population projection” was published in his book Charts and Graphs (1923) and patented in 1925. As with the 1911 “Apportioinment Map” noted in an earlier post, the term “cartogram” was not used by Karsten to describe this creation. He called it the “Population Projection.”

Curiously, it’s claimed that Karsten also invented the hedge fund.

But back to maps.

Karsten’s patent, (#1,556, 609, October 13, 1925) claimed rights to

…a map of a plurality of territories, having their boundary lines so distorted as to make their included areas represent graphically the relative importance of a given factor other than land area of one area with respect to another area, the boundaries being distorted without losing their familiar and significant features…

Karsten suggests using his “population projection” as a base upon which to map other data, such as truancy rates (below). Thus it’s a bivariate cartogram (reproduced from p. 667 in Charts and Graphs):

The idea is good, but in practice it’s a bit wonky. Several western US states are reduced to toothpick dimensions, and note the New York goiter (New York City). Also, Karsten seems to have some degree of difficulty maintaining the horizontal with the map and the legend. Could he have had an inner-ear infection?

But back to maps.

The illustration in Karsten’s patent reveals his methodology:

Details of the methodology can be found in the text of the patent.

Karsten, in Charts and Graphs, explains the justification for using the “population projection” which is, more or less, the same line of argument used in current discussions of cartograms:

We do not sell our goods to the mountains, bill them to the rivers, or credit the forests with payment. Probably from at least a subconscious appreciation of this circumstance, many national distributors, advertisers, and sales-managers have discarded maps on which the rivers, forests or mountains are shown when they are studying the geographic distribution of their sales. The up-to-date sales manager lots his distributing points and records his sales in a great many ways upon maps which carry only faint State outlines or a the most show the location of larger cities. But why stop here? Your sales manager does not sell to square miles, acres, or other units of land-area measurement. He sells to human beings. Why should he use maps which show, not human beings, but square miles, that is, maps in which the areas indicate not the population but the land surface? Why indeed!

The result of this projection of the map of the United Statues upon a population basis rather than a land-area basis will be most surprising even to the most hardened travelers.

Needless to say, the picture of sales conditions which such a map exhibits, will be far more valuable and useful than the picture upon the usual land-area basis. In short, the corrected areas of the States serve to give an excellent background or evaluation of the importance of the statistics plotted upon the map.

The number of ways in which the map can be altered and projected for special purposes upon special bases is unlimited, but all are alike in one respect – that their areas no longer show physical land areas in square miles but show the actual values more important for the special purposes in view.

In 2005 a series of cartogram patents (here here here) failed to cite Karsten’s patent.

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Making Psychogeography Maps

Posted in 01 What's A Map?, 02 Why Are You Making Your Map?, 03 Mappable Data, 06 Map Layout, 09 Map Symbolization, Deep Map Thoughts, Maps Made, unMaking Maps, tagged Maps - Grades 6-8, Maps - Weird, psychogeography, Psychogeography - Grades 6-8, Psychogeography - Lesson Plans, Psychogeography Maps, Sensory Mapping on June 22, 2009| 29 Comments »

Guide Psychogéographique de OWU (2009, med res jpg)

(larger version jpg)

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During the week of June 15-19 (2009) five intrepid Ohio students and myself engaged in improvisational psychogeography, culminating in the map opening this post. A printable 11″ x 17″ (300dpi 1.4mb) PDF of the map is here.

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Map detail: The path taken through campus followed the outline of a wolfie hand-shadow cast on a campus map.

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Map detail: Stuff smelt, heard, and felt with its allure or disallure indicated with faces.

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The map was the product of a course – Mapping Weird Stuff – I offered at the OWjL (Ohio Wesleyan University Junior League of Columbus) summer camp for gifted and talented middle school students.

Based on the kid’s ideas and work collecting diverse data, I designed a layout and look for the map. The map itself was created in FreehandMX, now dead-tech thanks to Adobe (I still prefer Freehand even though I started with Illustrator back at version 1).

Making the map once again reminded me that it’s fun to make maps, if you have interesting stuff to map. The design and layout are certainly nothing one could generate with typical mapping software – thus the use of graphic illustration software. Diverse and interesting maps are not really the domain of web and pc-based map generation software. Maybe sometimes. Not usually.

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Map detail: An abstracted linear “map” sequencing smells, textures, and sounds from one end to the other of the path investigated.

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My vague intent was to do some kind of weird mapping project on campus – sensory mapping, psychogeography, etc. My search for resources for this age student (grades 6-8) resulted in a few finds, but not much. The materials I compiled on the course blog (here) served as the basis of our work, which developed as the students engaged the ideas. We met for 1.5 hours a day, for 5 days.

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Special glasses indicate how serious we were about this project.
The Hulk hand inspired confidence in our powers.

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The students, Django, Mallory, McKenna, Erica, and Ben, were great. They jumped into the project, came up with ideas that shaped our direction, and collected all of the data on the map. I had some ideas about what kind of psychogeography we would do, and what kind of map we would create, then it all transmogrified into something else which turned out great.

We did a dérive (“a technique of transient passage through varied ambiances”) to get a feel for the campus and its “resonances,” some blind-folded, ear-plugged tours through the campus (with me or one of the students leading the others along) collecting smells and sounds, as well as a few texture collection expeditions (inspired, in part, by Denis Wood’s Narrative Atlas of Boylan Heights project).

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Guiding much of our work was a single, inspiring Hulk hand.

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A bit of background on Psychogeography:

Psychogeography, according to its founder Guy Debord, is “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

In practice, psychogeography inherently resists any narrow definitions. It encompasses diverse activities that raise awareness of the natural and cultural environment, is attentive to senses and emotions as they relate to place and environment, is often political and critical of the status quo, and must be both very serious and fun.

Psychogeography overlaps with Kevin Lynch’s work on mental maps, as nicely reviewed in Denis Wood’s article “Lynch Debord” as well as work on non-visual sensory-scapes (smellscape, soundscape, touchscape, tastescape, etc.).

The most famous psychogeography map is Debord’s Guide Pychogéographique de Paris:

Guy Debord, Guide Pychogéographique de Paris

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Cartominutiae: Combined Symbols on Maps

Posted in 09 Map Symbolization, Cartominutiae, tagged map symbols, Map Symbols - Combined, Map Symbols - Guides, symbols on June 12, 2009| 7 Comments »

The construction of symbols on maps requires the interaction of many elements. How these elements come together – literally the intersection of bits of points, lines, and areas – is the subject of a series of illustrations entitled “The Drawing of Combined Symbols.” The majority of these guidelines focus on peculiar details that when done well, the typical map user won’t even notice. They are among the fascinating hyper-minutiae of cartography.

Faces indicate the quality of the choices illustrated – good, ok, and poor.

Examples are illustrated by Prof. Kei Kanazawa (heading the Working Group of the Japan Cartographers Association) in a chapter entitled “Techniques of Map Drawing and Lettering” in the out-of-print book Basic Cartography, Vol. 1 (International Cartographic Association, 1984, p. 45). These guidelines were developed for the pen and ink era of cartography, yet most are applicable to contemporary digital mapping.

Illustrations are for educational purposes only. Click on an illustration for a larger version.

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Railway Symbols: Note arrangement of tics and black and white parts.

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Manner of connecting line symbols corresponding to broken lines.

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Several examples of crossing line symbols.

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Drawing of double broken line symbols.

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Drawing of double line road symbols in connection with other symbols.

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Position of individual point symbols: (1) Place of explanation symbol, (2) Point symbols corresponding to the exact place on the ground.

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Drawing of contours.

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Relation of contours and road symbols.

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Boundary along linear objects. Parts of a boundary along linear objects such as a river, road, and so on which are clearly recognized are usually omitted.

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Fat-Tailed Sheep on Maps & Other Curios: The Map Collector

Posted in Map History, tagged History of Cartography, Map Collecting, Map Collector, Map History on June 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

from “Fat Tailed Sheep on Maps of Africa”
The Map Collector, 1 June 1979

Collectors are a peculiar lot. They can frustrate somber scholars with their unconventional research methods and seeming interest in objects rather than context. Yet the passion and obsessiveness of collectors often produces an endless source of interesting materials.

The Map Collector (1977-1996) was a magazine devoted to maps as collectible objects. Within its pages could be found some rather interesting articles on all sorts of maps and cartographic ephemera.

Where else would one find an article about fat-tailed sheep illustrated on old maps of Africa?

Yes they are real (source and here)

Kunstpedia, a “knowledge base on fine and decorative arts, popularly stated arts and antiques, with the exception of contemporary art” has acquired permission to publish Map Collector articles, full text with images, on their web pages.

Articles, which continue to be added to the site, include:

“One of America’s Foremost Cartographers: Jed Hotchkiss”
by Peter Roper

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“Maps on Cigarette Cards”
by Martin Murray

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“Pocket Maps for Travellers”
by Katherine R. Goodwin

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“Maps that made Cabmen Honest”
by Ralph Hyde

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“The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians”
by G. Malcolm Lewis

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“The Great Lakes of Africa”
by R.V. Tooley

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“History of Watermarks”
by Bob Akers

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“Old Korean Hand Atlases”
by Shannon McCune

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Also of interest:

The International Map Collector’s Society and its Quarterly Journal
Map History / History of Cartography Weblinks maintained by Tony Campbell
History of Cartography Project
Recent Trends in the History of Cartography: A Selective, Annotated Bibliography to the English-Language Literature by Matthew Edney

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Making Advocacy & Humanitarian Maps [updated]

Posted in 01 What's A Map?, 02 Why Are You Making Your Map?, 04 Map-Making Tools, Advocacy Maps, Deep Map Thoughts, Map Books, tagged Activism maps, Advocacy Maps, Cartographic Design, Counter Cartography, Counter Mapping, Humanitarian Maps, Map Design, maps as arguments on June 6, 2009| 8 Comments »

When Bill Bunge mapped out the locations of car/pedestrian collisions in Detroit (Detroit Geographical Expedition, 1968) he and the map were advocating a way of thinking about what was happening to the black community in Detroit – and advocating for change.

All maps advocate.

To advocate means to “to speak or write in favor of; support or urge by argument; recommend publicly.” The word derives from the Latin advocate: “to call to one’s aid.”

What map does not advocate, or argue for something? We are always calling maps to our aid.

Three free books on maps and advocacy have been made available for download recently, and are worth a look.

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Two New PDF Books [added June 6 2009]:

Good Practices in Participatory Mapping (2mb PDF here, 2009). Published by International Fund for Agricultural Development.

A review of participatory mapping methods.

This report will review existing knowledge related to participatory mapping and recent developments. Specifically:

Section 1 will define the main features of participatory mapping;

Section 2 will discuss key applications of participatory mapping;

Section 3 will present specific tools used in participatory mapping, including their strengths and weaknesses;

Section 4 will identify good practices and explore the significance of process in participatory mapping initiatives.

participatorymapping

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Toolbox & Manual: Mapping the Vulnerability of Communities (4.4mb PDF English version here, Portuguese version aqui, 2008). Published by Salzburg University Centre for Geoinformatics.

A overview of concepts and methods for community mapping, focused on vulnerability.

Within the research and project context it is aimed to provide the local communities with appropriate maps of their communities. The maps should enhance planning and decision making processes within the communities in regard to reduce local vulnerabilities and allow appropriate planning of disaster response measures. It is the first time in Mozambique that maps have been produced with such an accuracy (high resolution data) and for disaster risk management through the integration of participatory practices.

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Visualizing Information for Advocacy: an Introduction to Information Design (7mb PDF here, January 2008). Published by Tactical Technology Collective.

Succinct, well-designed, with many good examples of maps and information graphics for advocacy.

…a manual aimed at helping NGOs and advocates strengthen their campaigns and projects through communicating vital information with greater impact. This project aims to raise awareness, introduce concepts, and promote good practice in information design – a powerful tool for advocacy, outreach, research, organization and education.

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Maps for Advocacy: An Introduction to Geographic Mapping Techniques (3mb PDF here, September 2008). Published by Tactical Technology Collective.

A great overview of maps and advocacy with many examples and resources.

The booklet is an effective guide to using maps in advocacy. The mapping process for advocacy is explained vividly through case studies, descriptions of procedures and methods, a review of data sources as well as a glossary of mapping terminology. Scattered through the booklet are links to websites which afford a glance at a few prolific mapping efforts.

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Field Guide for Humanitarian Mapping (3.2mb PDF here, March 2009). Published by MapAction.

A textbook for using maps and GIS in humanitarian work. The Guide provides detailed information on data collection (GPS) and the use of Google Earth and MapWindow (free mapping software).

The guide was written to meet the need for practical, step-by-step advice for aid workers who wish to use free and open-source resources to produce maps both at field and headquarters levels. The first edition contains an introduction to the topic of GIS, followed by chapters focused on the use of two recommended free software tools: Google Earth, and MapWindow. However much of the guidance is also relevant for users of other software.

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Some related resources:

the Tutor/Mentor Collection’s GIS and Mapping Resources Page.
slides & text from Erik Hersman’s Activist Mapping presentation at Where 2.0.
the Atlas of Radical Cartography.
Counter-Cartographies Collective & 3C’s Blog.
An Introduction to Critical Cartography (176k PDF) by Jeremy Crampton & John Krygier (2006)
“Protest Maps” (292k PDF) by Denis Wood & John Krygier (2009).
Mapping: A Critical Introduction to Cartography & GIS by Jeremy Crampton (2009).

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Flies on a Map

Posted in 01 What's A Map?, 09 Map Symbolization, Map Cartoons, Map History, tagged Cartoons, maps, Maps - Africa, Maps - cartoons, Maps - Flies on April 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

Don’t you think we’d better skidoo? They say this part of the map won’t be safe for big game this year.”

Life, February 4, 1909

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Map Symbols: Permanent Snow & Ice

Posted in 09 Map Symbolization, 12 Finishing Your Map, Map History, tagged Cartographic Design, Map Design, map symbols, Snow & Ice - Map Symbols on March 17, 2009| 2 Comments »

This manual establishes the design, weights, and gauges of symbols, and the type styles and sizes to be used in compiling and drafting standard topographic maps prepared by the Army Map Service for publication at the scale of 1:1,000,000.

During the compilation stages, strict adherence to symbol specifications shall not be required. Line weights and gauges may be varied twenty percent (20%), plus or minus, from prescribed specifications.

In using the symbols specified for drafting, strict adherence to the prescribed weights and gauges must be maintained.

The examples below are map symbols for permanent ice and snow features.

The 1953 Army Map Service guide Symbols for Small Scale Maps details map symbol specifications for compiled maps (left, below) and drafted maps (right, below). Compiled maps are the initial draft of a map, where diverse sources of information are drawn together. Using the compiled map, a cartographic draftsman creates the final, drafted map, suitable for printing.

The map symbol specifications include detailed symbol dimensions:

Specifications for glaciers:

Specifications for ice cliffs:

Specifications for the limits of icefields or snowfields:

The entire page 22 of the Army Map Service Symbols for Small Scale Maps, including specifications for permanent snow and ice features is linked below:

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Mapping with Isotype

Posted in 02 Why Are You Making Your Map?, 06 Map Layout, 09 Map Symbolization, 10 Type on Maps, 11 Color on Maps, Map Books, Map History on February 17, 2009| 16 Comments »

I was moving some piles of junk in a storage room and came across a 1934 U.S. Public Works Administration book on Mississippi Valley public works projects (Report of the Mississippi Valley Committee of the Public Works Administration, October 1, 1934). The book is full of maps and other information graphics influenced by Otto Neurath, Gerd Arntz, and Marie Reidemeister’s picture language, isotype.

I always thought isotype had a great look to it. Its context, in Vienna Circle logical positivism, is a bit wonky, and the idea that symbols – if designed carefully enough – could be “universally communicable” across all cultural and social differences, is merely the dream of those born with a peculiar neurology. Nevertheless, the isotype “look” is cool in a retro sort of way, and it has certainly influenced the current spare design ethos in cartography.

Some annotated examples of the isotype “language” from a 1937 article by Neurath:

The Gerd Arntz Web Archive is a spectacular collection of thousands of isotype symbols designed by Arntz. All seem to be free to use. (symbols are copyrighted by Pictoright – thanks to Jonathan Hunt for pointing this out). The site also has a breif biography of Arntz.

In casting about the internets, I was gladdened to find someone had scanned the isotype classic, Atlas of Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930, 14+mb PDF). As far as I know the atlas was printed (on sheets) in limited numbers and has never been easy to find. Sybilla Nikolow discusses the atlas in her article “Society and Economy: An Atlas in Otto Neurath’s Pictorial Statistics from 1930.” (PDF)

A sampling of maps and graphs from the Atlas follows, and a few more useful isotype resources can be found way at the end.

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A few interesting isotype resources:

The Isotype Institute documents the history of isotype and has much useful information.

A snazzy discussion of isotype done up by mixing isotype and text is Modern Hieroglyphics. (PDF)

Ellen Lupton reviews the history and significance of isotype in her article “Reading Isotype.” (PDF)

Neurath and the Vienna Method of Picture Statistics (PDF). A chapter out of an e-book called Speaking of Graphics An Essay on Graphicacy in Science, Technology and Business by Paul J. Lewi. Seems like a nice overview of the history of isotype and its characteristics.

The DADA Companion has much information on design and art related to isotype. Search for “isotype” or “Neurath.”

A new book to be published in April of 2009 is called The Transformer: Principles of Making Isotype Charts by Marie Neurath and Robin Kinross.

Austin Kleon’s blog on graphic design has a nice posting on isotype, comics, and information graphics design. Search the blog for other isotype references.

The web magazine Mute has a feature called The Dutch Are Weeping in Four Universal Pictorial Languages At Least that reviews a series of contemporary exhibits that focus on isotype and related ideas. One exhibit called After Neurath has a significant amount of information and links.

The New York Times summarized 2007 US and Coalition member deaths in Iraq in a isotype-esque chart (click for larger version):

Stroom De Haag writes (in the online magazine Archined) about Neurath as the “grandfather of open source.”

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Working Maps: 17th-19th Century French Manuscript Maps

Posted in 02 Why Are You Making Your Map?, 09 Map Symbolization, 10 Type on Maps, 11 Color on Maps, Map History, tagged History of Cartography, Map Design, map symbols - farm fields, map symbols - French - 17th-19th century, map symbols - geology, map symbols - hunting grounds, map symbols - prehistoric sites, map symbols - property, map symbols - rivers, map symbols - terrain, map symbols - trees & forests, maps - manuscript on February 3, 2009| 6 Comments »

Prähistorische Karte von Südwestdeutschland und der Schweiz, 1879

(Protohistoric and Prehistoric Discoveries …)

Looking at working maps – manuscripts, field sketches, and provisional maps – reveals a diversity of symbolization and design which are lost in the monoculture of finished, standardized maps.

HistCarto brings together more than 4000 17th-19th century French manuscript maps. All are working maps, and most are hand drawn. Most contain signs of assessment:

These “signs of assessment” include textual commentaries or the addition of symbols, which provide some indication of the ways the maps were made or the uses to which they were put in an administrative or military capacity.

Map symbols and topics shown here include prehistoric sites, farm fields, trees and forests, rivers, hunting grounds, geology, terrain, and property parcels.

The site is in French. Once at the site, click on the Acces a la base link on the right. Then select Recherche (on the left) and Simple. I tried to link each of the maps below to its page at the HistCarto site, but you must be logged into the site for the links to work. Not optimal! So I removed the links. To find the maps, just search the site using the map’s title (below each map).

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Detail, farm fields near Neuhof forest (1787):