Art or Cartogrpahy - What is a map?

[waldronate]

As RobA points out, every map should have been created for a purpose. Time and effort were expended to gather information and produce an artifact. Just throwing together some elements (not matter how harmonious they may be) with a modern paint program produces a piece of art, not a map!

Going one step further on the "art" or "map" topic is my pet peeve: the picture of a map. Too many times I see what would be a nice map, but the artist has chosen to add things like tattered edges, faux stains, and paper grain in an attempt to make the map look like a picture of a map. Without a context in which to communicate the reason that it's a picture of a map rather than a map "this map was passed down through generations, with the important travel paths shown as the stains of countless fingers tracing their journeys", then most of the decoration is likely superfluous.

[Diamond]

Going one step further on the "art" or "map" topic is my pet peeve: the picture of a map. Too many times I see what would be a nice map, but the artist has chosen to add things like tattered edges, faux stains, and paper grain in an attempt to make the map look like a picture of a map. Without a context in which to communicate the reason that it's a picture of a map rather than a map "this map was passed down through generations, with the important travel paths shown as the stains of countless fingers tracing their journeys", then most of the decoration is likely superfluous.

Personally, I can't agree with that. Having all the relevant information to make the map function in the manner in which it was intended is necessary, of course. But it also needs life, and character, and mystery, and romance, or it's just a bunch of boring lines and blobs. I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with that. Injecting life into something doesn't necessarily detract from its primary goal. Of course if the decoration becomes the primary focus, to the point where it obscures the map's functionality, then...

[Jalyha]

Personally, I can't agree with that. Having all the relevant information to make the map function in the manner in which it was intended is necessary, of course. But it also needs life, and character, and mystery, and romance, or it's just a bunch of boring lines and blobs. I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with that. Injecting life into something doesn't necessarily detract from its primary goal. Of course if the decoration becomes the primary focus, to the point where it obscures the map's functionality, then...

then... ... you get a failed attempt at a map like the ones I've been failing to make!

Between the two of you, I think you just solved *my* problem I keep getting stuck on the fact that my maps aren't *pretty* enough... or *real* enough... before they are finished.

Maybe the key is to make it functional and then pretty it up just a little? I dunno, but I'm going to try to work with this...

THANKS!

(I hope)

[foremost]

Having all the relevant information to make the map function in the manner in which it was intended is necessary, of course. But it also needs life, and character, and mystery, and romance, or it's just a bunch of boring lines and blobs.

I'm not sure here. The things Diamond mentioned make
a map interesting, but I don't think they are required for
a functional tool. Maps were (and are) tools. More
cartographers should think of them that way, in my
humble opinion.

[Gamerprinter]

I'm not sure here. The things Diamond mentioned make
a map interesting, but I don't think they are required for
a functional tool. Maps were (and are) tools. More
cartographers should think of them that way, in my
humble opinion.

I think the better maps here are more than just technique, rather as Diamond put it, the artist has put 'life' into the work. I have done maps in the past, that were done to meet certain prerequisites and that's all that was done. I think any maps done that way fall short of conveying 'life'. When I design to my own concepts, the idea develops as I do the map, and include those ideas as I create it - thus giving it life, and the results are much more satisfying to me and to anyone looking at them, than maps done strictly as a tool.