On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

If you live in Canada, you'll remember a company called MapArt. They are based in Oshawa, Ontario. MapArt published folding maps of cities and towns and provinces, and eventually got around to publishing street and road atlases too. They became known for a certain presentation style, one that got highlighted in Cynthia A. Brewer's book Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users as an example of how maps could be designed well for their users to find their way around those cities and towns. Orange spaces for urban spaces in general, bright pink for landmark buildings, yellow lines for major streets, white for the side streets...and here's an example of their classic style:



But for some reason(s), they weren't able to continue publishing their maps in that design style.

But the style changed hands, first to a publisher called RouteMaster. Now, it's being used by G. M. Johnson and Associates Ltd. out of Vancouver. They're using the data and the design style for folding paper maps, as is right and proper. I'm happy with the Ottawa and Halifax editions that I bought via World of Maps here in Ottawa a few months back. My issue with them is the lack of street and road atlases being published using the same material. For my purposes as someone trying to get around Ottawa - or any other Canadian city - the atlas format is less awkward to work with as I'm walking or bussing around town.

I don't know if posting this commentary on Dreamwidth will get me even one step closer to an admittedly selfish desire. But I thought I'd get this on the record anyway.

Another piece for Spacing Ottawa went live on their blog this morning.

Read and react as you will:

http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/01/11/round-and-round-the-boulevard/