When I tell adults I’m a cartographer, about 80% of the time I get a blank stare in response. It’s a fun treat when I find someone who already knows the term.

This may change with the next generation, because in video games a cartographer is a relatively common character. Today’s teenagers are growing up more familiar with the idea that a cartographer makes maps. But when they think of a cartographer based on their video game experiences, what do they see? I decided to find out. I shared my findings at NACIS 2022 in Minneapolis.

I want to be a cartographer when I grow up!

Cartographers often appear in video games, helping players gain new pieces of the world map. What are these representations teaching kids (and adults) about who cartographers are? In this talk I’ll share my analysis of the ways cartographers are represented in popular video games.

In early 2022, Daniel Huffman put out a call for participation for a fun project to create trading cards for map projections, and I signed up. I chose to portray the Mollweide projection because it was the first projection I deliberately chose for a map, back in my first cartography class.

The Projection Collection trading cards were released in fall 2022 and trading them was a big hit at the NACIS conference. I managed to collect almost all of them (if you have #6 or #39, please reach out to me).

I was asked to create a panel for the NACIS 2021 map quilt, and assigned a section of Oklahoma City. I’d recently been tinkering with Arduino circuitry, so my grid-like suburban corner of OKC immediately reminded me of a circuit board. I also wanted to highlight Oklahoma City’s tech industry and significant role in the growing Silicon Prairie.

On my map quilt square, buildings from OpenStreetMap became components, classified by size. I made the smallest buildings connector holes and lumps of solder. Medium-sized buildings became common components like capacitors and resistors, and the largest buildings became unique components like a speaker and inductor. To get the component images, I found 3D models of each so I could capture the perfect overhead angle.

I was asked to create a panel for the NACIS 2019 map quilt, and assigned a section of the Tacoma area. In honor of Tacoma’s Museum of Glass and the conference venue Hotel Murano, I created a digital map that looks like stained glass. Its textures come from photos I took of real stained glass.

I ordered a copy of the same cartographic image from 14 different online print services and compared the results. In my talk at the annual NACIS conference in Tacoma, I revealed the customer experience and print quality of each.

Someday My Prints Will Come: Comparison of Online Print Services

You’ve designed a map and want a to print a small run to sell or distribute. There are many online companies clamoring for your business, but their services vary widely in areas like pricing, available sizes, texture, customer experience, and quality. How do you know where to order and what to expect? To answer this question, I ordered prints of the same cartographic image from over a dozen online printers. In my talk, I’ll share the resulting prints and what I learned.

In October 2018, I gave this presentation at the annual NACIS conference in Norfolk, VA. I designed and gave the talk, and the printing expert who provided the content (and a video cameo) was my late and greatly missed colleague Bruce Daniel.

Imprimatur: Printing Maps in Today’s Digital World

If you want to print a map, what do you need to know about printing terminology and methods? How much will it cost? What should you expect when working with a print company? How can you prepare your files to avoid costly corrections? Ultimately, how do you ensure that your map shines even more on paper than it does on the screen?

I gave this talk, about how to create a presentation about a conference, in October 2018 at the annual NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society) conference in Norfolk, VA. While it’s focused on the NACIS conference, the guidelines are applicable to any conference.

Be a Cartography Expert in Three Easy Steps 

1. Attend the NACIS conference.

2. Follow Kate’s tips and guidelines on what to record about the conference while you’re here.

3. Dazzle your local colleagues and geo community with a presentation about the highlights of the conference.

We all know NACIS is overflowing with fascinating cartographic content. You can show off presenters’ research, creativity, and eye-catching maps to raise your own profile back home, while promoting NACIS and the cartographers whose work you highlight. Kate will equip you to be a cartography maven by sharing what she’s learned from three years of giving presentations about the NACIS conference.

After the 2016 election, I started a project to raise money for vital non-profits by selling beautiful and striking map art decals for cell phones. I created six designs, each inspired by a different cause that was especially under attack. All proceeds from each design go to a non-profit working for that cause. I’m supporting:

• reproductive rights (via Planned Parenthood)
• civil rights (via the ACLU)
• black lives matter (via Black Lives Matter)
• refugee resettlement (via International Rescue Committee)
• investigative journalism (via ProPublica)
• environmental justice (via EarthJustice)

I selected non-profit organizations that are fighting on a national level, to have the greatest effect. All of them have a rating higher than 90/100 on Charity Navigator, indicating low overhead, good financial management, and transparency (except Black Lives Matter, which doesn’t make enough income to be rated).

After I watched Dylan Moriarty’s talk on Textures & Patterns, I was inspired to stay up way too late and create a Lisa-Frank-inspired Mapbox style with repeating rainbows and endless sparkly stars. The coastlines are from Project Linework, for a perfect doodly feel. Sometimes it’s fun to go over the top!

As a NACIS board member at large, one of my contributions was organizing virtual events for the 2020 and 2021 conferences. We used the Remo platform with great success, and I enjoyed designing virtual meeting rooms to use each year’s brand colors and design elements.

In the summer of 2016, I spent 2.5 months traveling Asia with my husband and child. Before we left, I created this map to share with Ruby’s 4th-grade classmates.

This fall, I attended my second NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society) conference, which has become a highlight of my year. One talk I found particularly inspiring was John Nelson‘s presentation on Firefly Cartography. I could explain what that means, but an image makes it pretty clear.

I was excited to make my own firefly map. At the same time, I was knee-deep in roads data for my employer, the City of Seattle, and had been wondering about the public staircases I noticed there. So I seized on that theme, and created this map in a few hours, using only ArcMap.

As John noted, glowing things have a white center surrounded by opaque color, then increasingly transparent color. I didn’t take the time to make perfect gradient icons in Illustrator; instead I just repeated the layer several times in ArcMap. The staircases are classified by length, so longer stairs are greener and brighter.

After I finished I was pleased with the look, but I wanted to take it a step further and make it really glow, not just look like it was glowing. So, I had it printed on glass!

It’s easier than you might think – you can order glass prints from Shutterfly (promo codes are usually available for a discount off the list price). Now my map truly glows.

I created a series of 74 static maps for the Washington Poison Center to help them communicate the scope of their work to legislators, hospitals, and other stakeholders. I also created a near-real-time dashboard for their call center to help highlight unusual trends.

Click to read a letter of recommendation from the Poison Center. 

In 2016, NACIS members collaborated in a project called MapLift, to give a boost to the FixWikiMaps project (which adds maps to Wikipedia pages that have poor or no maps). My contribution was for the Essoeira Province page.

I took a Skillshare course called Map Making: Learn to Communicate Places Beautifully. This is my favorite project from the course, which uses a map style to communicate my deep connection with my 1992 Honda Civic, and how it felt like a history-rich island of solace. (Unfortunately, I no longer have the car.)