Explorations in Mapmaking

This workshop can be offered as a graphic design course, or as a reflective exercise for non-artists. It has been offered in two-, three-, and five-day formats.

Three maps, one city: every map is act of interpreting a landscape. The graphic means are often very simple, but, thoughtfully handled, they create interesting and useful patterns. What choices do each of the mapmakers make?

Milne’s "Winnie the Pooh" begins with a map: a child’s-eye view of a landscape imbued with personal history and meaning. Maps tell us a great deal about what we think is important about the places we live in and visit.

Participants are encouraged to explore their own graphic language, using the tools and materials with which they are most comfortable. We experiment with collage, painting, and drawing, and we look at how to use lettering effectively. Some of the best results have been achieved with the simplest means: a good sheet of paper, a rolling writer pen, and a bit of colored pencil. Ordinary handwriting can have enormous integrity in making a personal map. Those adept at art techniques bring a wider visual vocabulary to the task.

Participants have made many kinds of maps—a representation of a much-appreciated vacation, a map as the journey of life, a map of a backyard as seen through the eyes of a cat. The exercise can be playful or deeply serious.

Mapmaking is an excellent means to explore the landscape we inhabit—whether it is the physical world, or the rich world of the imagination.