Following on from yesterday’s feature on our Cartographic Design Consultant Charley Glynn, we wanted to share some recent examples of work from the Cartographic Design team.

Youth Hostel Association map

Working with the Youth Hostel Association we were asked to produce a large wall map that was to be used as part of a campaign to encourage people to explore the Dark and White Peaks.

The map would be simple and would need to depict 6 carefully selected walking, running and cycling routes and the terrain around them.

The image below is essentially work in progress as the finished product will see the image be used by the YHA to cut out the layers making up the terrain from wood. The routes will then be added using pins and string. We’re really looking forward to seeing it up on display.

OS Maps night mode map

If you use our OS Maps mobile app, you may have come across this map style. It works great in dark environments and is at its best on a mobile device – the dark pixels can help save your battery. Data overlays stand out really well on top of this mapping making it ideal for data visualisation.

OS products

Since 2014, we’ve sought to improve the way in which we visually support our data products. Historically the visualisation of geodata products in their marketing has been poor. We have sought to rectify this at OS by creating sets of self-explanatory visuals for each of our products to showcase their content, level of attribution, complementary products, and suggested market use(s): The aim being to achieve better storytelling and so offering customers a better insight into the value and potential of each product to their business.

This mosaic image shows some of our new visuals, created from a blend of photography, cartographic design, case studies and intended uses. Marketing can make good use of the association of customer application with the dataset and the business is now better equipped to show customers and potential customers the value of the underlying data, i.e. the products.

OS Maps standard map

This map is the canvas for our outdoor leisure app, OS Maps, as the default view. Borrowing certain design elements from our traditional paper maps, this style focusses on terrain and land cover, has a minimal colour palette and familiar symbology. Urban areas are also brought to life with generalised building heights. You can also change the map view to see aerial imagery, OS Explorer, OS Landranger and even off-road routing for Britain’s 15 National Parks.

More maps from Cartographic Design team

If you’re a carto fan, there are lots of ways to keep up with what they do, and follow their advice when creating your own maps.