Elizabeth Bowie, "Development Maps"

Maps are needed in almost every field of work and study in today's society. From your typical users like Architects, Landscape Architects, Engineers, and developers to your common lay man driving along the road reading a "road" map and your mall goer trying to find his or her way from point "A" to point "B," maps can be used to represent an array of information. This information can be used present in ways to entice your emmotions in one way or another. Take the develoer and the angry resident. The developer will use his maps in a way to entrigue the viewer to want to press forward with his design. He'll use masterplans depicting mature trees, showing lots of good circulation, and draw attention away from anything which could possibly be perceived as negative. The angry resident will want to play up the smoke filling the air from all that "good circulation" from buses and cars, emphasize that trees will be planted much smaller than shown, shw areas where trash cans would be found and on and on. ITs the war over how to depict your maps in the best possible perspective to get your ideas across to another person. the intent of this article: to make you skeptical about how people use maps.