Cartography

AO2, AO3

Summary

My sub-theme of cartography consisted of creating 9 unique illuminated letters in different styles of maps to spell out the word 'cartography'. The brief at the time was on typography so I chose to combine my sub-theme and the brief. This pairs nicely with my theme of landscapes, bringing the previous 3D ideas to a 2D form of media. These letters serve as a sort of promotion for the dying cartography industry as well as referencing the old art of printing, manuscripts, and illuminated letters.

Planning and Research

The initial brief was to focus on typography. My first thoughts were to explore illuminated letters, common in medieval times, that I had seen in books about the history of typography at school. These illuminated letters stood out to me because of their intricate detail and beautiful patterns. However, I also wanted to pair it with the idea of cartography. Not only to create the link to landscape, but also because map-making is threatened by the rise of modern technology in the same way that manuscripts and printing have been impacted. Pairing these two concepts, I came up with the idea of creating illuminated letters using maps as a form of advertisement to help promote the traditional industry.

In the end, I decided to create the word 'cartography' out of digitally drawn letters. This provided a fit with both themes. Since 'cartography' consists of 11 characters - two of which repeat - it meant that I needed to make 9 individual letters in total. I started by researching and looking at different map types on Pinterest to help me get an idea of the sort of styles I could go for. I found plenty of different maps ranging from American national park height maps to old fantasy-like mountains in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien. In the end, I found around 9 separate styles which I was happy trying to recreate. I then tried to link each letter up to a map style. For example, the letter 'c' would pair nicely with a map of a river since it follows a similar natural curve. And with that I was ready to start creating my 9 letters.

Creating The Pieces

the letter 'c' would be well represented by a river due to its curved shape. I started by using the text tool to write out the letter and scale it up. I then traced it with a rougher shape and added other streams splitting off. I used the gradient editor tool to create the river's bank lines, making them fade closer to the centre to achieve a sense of depth. I then drew borders and roads around the river and coloured them. To finish off, I added some text labels and added a filter to give the map an older look.

Since google maps consists of very simple single coloured shapes, recreating this style was the easiest of all the letters. I started by going onto google maps and getting some samples of rivers, roads, motorways and parks to pick colours from and reference. I used the text tool to write an 'A' in a font I thought would fit well and then traced it using the polygonal lasso tool. I added rivers and grassy areas around the main road. I gave all the shapes borders and finished by adding some area and road names in the font that google maps uses.

For 'R', I thought a height map of an American style nature reserve would look cool. So I started by finding a fitting font and traced the outline of the letter. I then grew my selection each time and filled in the border in order to create the height map rings, deviating from the original shape as the letter grew to create a more natural look. I added a grid, rivers, grassy areas, names, and numbers like I saw on the examples I researched.

As for 'T', I wanted to make it in the style of the London Underground because of the letter's sharp angles which mimic branches on the map of the Tube. I got some samples of the London Underground map and opened Photoshop. I created a basic 'T' shape using different coloured straight lines. I gave them borders and interwove them, joining them at certain parts with the white dots to show stations. I named all of the stations as well as adding the railway symbol to some as found on ones like Paddington or Victoria.

To start off 'O', I created a sphere in Blender and took a picture of it in wireframe mode. I then imported it into photoshop and traced the lines, curving them to make it look more like a map of the globe. I then found some references of a real world map and drew on the shapes of the continents. I made the background look like old paper by painting regions in different shades of yellow and applying a blur filter over it. To finish off, I added outlines and names to the continents.

For the letter 'G', I was inspired by some of J. R. R. Tolkien's maps for the Hobbit as I really liked the fantasy style. I started by making an old background by drawing in different shades before blurring it all together. I found a guide breaking down how fantasy mountains on a map are drawn and followed the steps, outlining the letter. Once I was done drawing, I added shades and highlights to the mountains to fill them out and give them some depth.

For 'P' I chose to base it on old English county maps. I picked out a fancy font with serifs. I outlined the letter and added an old looking background by once again drawing different coloured dots and using the blur tool. I also added a grid to the background as I thought it would be a nice touch. I added a dark, rounded border and started adding county lines and names inside the P, the inner border and the outer one. I finished by adding some shading using the brush tool.

As for 'H', it was another fairly simple approach. I decided to base it off of Hawaiian island maps as I found them quite pretty. I found a curled 'H' with serifs as it would fit the natural archipelago of islands better than a straight cornered one. I drew out the letter using a thick pointed brush, and then layered a couple shades of blue on to show depth of the ocean. I added in some green islands using the lasso and fill tools and added smaller shapes inside the islands to show height.

I found 'Y' to be the most time consuming one. I decided to create it in the style of a google maps satellite image since 'Y' looked like a road junction. I started by searching on google maps for a countryside road to resemble the letter 'Y'. From there, I traced some general shapes and started adding in some solid colour blocks. I added some foliage around the road and started to add shadows. From there it was just adding more detail using the paint brush and polygonal lasso tools.

Evaluation

I was really proud of how these pieces turned out. The choice of styles I chose covers many different map types ranging from old fantasy maps to modern day google maps. this gave me insight into how cartography has evolved and how it's now being replaced by online maps and tools. I was also pleased that I managed to combine the ideas of landscapes, images and language, linking to my other sub-themes. I used a variety of digital art techniques to create these images which improved my digital painting and design skills.

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