MAP DESIGN
Our maps are designed to cartographic standard. All products are created with two factors in mind - quality design and the client’s information requirement. We create uncluttered maps which are a pleasure to look at and easy to understand. We connect mapping information from a variety of sources, including those specific to client needs. This often involves collaborating with clients to capture relevant information and verify external data.
We specialise in archival research incorporating older non-digital maps and information into our projects.
We have a background in built heritage, and are particularly interested in human interaction with the landscape over time.
Rathlin Island, located 10km from the north east coast of Ireland, is notorious for the treacherous Straits of Moyle separating it from the mainland. The straits have claimed many vessels over the years and this map shows the topography of the island, bathymetry (ocean depth) of the surrounding sea and locations of some of these shipwrecks. The map is based on data captured by LIDAR - a mapping technology that works by firing millions of beams of light from a laser against a surface to record its shape, in this case mounted on a plane. The data is freely available from OpenDataNI as a spreadsheet containing three values: latitude, longitude and height of each point. This information had been processed and styled in a GIS to convert what is originally a huge list of numbers into this map. Shipwreck data has been compiled by the Northern Ireland Historic Environment Agency, made available through OpenDataNI and bathymetric data is courtesy of data.gov.uk. Lakes and rivers courtesy of OpenStreetMap.
We take great care in designing maps from the bottom up, to include accurate representations of the terrain overlaid with information that clearly communicates the map's objective. After all - a map tells a story, and every story should be told well.