5 replies to this topic

[d_say]

Hello to everyone on Carto Talk.

My name is Dean and like all of you I love maps

A bit about myself.
Well I'm 23 and I live in Melbourne, Australia.
I have graduated and obtained a diploma in Cartography and Geographical Visualization at RMIT University in Melbourne.
After graduating from RMIT I now work as an Associate Lecturer at RMIT teaching the same course that I graduated from. I am now in my second year of teaching and love it!
I work closely with William Cartwright (President of the ICA) in teaching subjects such as 'Cartography' (1, 2 and 3) along with other subjects such as 'Cartography and Geographical Visualization' (1, 2 and 3).
Within these subjects I teach the students a variety of programs such as:
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe InDesign
- Google SketchUp
and a few other odds and ends.

I am very interested in the design and publication of cartographic products along with new and emerging technologies that enable us to represent the spatial world that surrounds us.
I have done some work within ArcGIS analyzing data throughout my course, however the actual design and map creation for various kinds of media has grabbed my main attention as this is what really interests me. I love being creative and letting my mind come up with new and interesting ideas. I'm always willing to play around and experiment with new programs that could be of use to map creation and visualization.

I also love to travel whenever the opportunities arises.
So far i have been to Fiji (A field trip while in my second year at RMIT). Last year I decided to do a trip to America and Canada for around 3 weeks where i got to see Vegas and New York and then this year in June I went over to New Zealand for 10 days on a Snowboarding trip with a few friends. I just love to see and travel the world!

I look forward to becoming part of the Carto Talk community and hope that I can contribute to helping other fellow members out.

Cheers,
Dean

[DaveB]

Welcome, Dean!
Do you teach designing for web as well as paper maps?

[d_say]

Hi Dave,

Yes within the course we teach the students how to make maps for various types of media, whether that be for web based delivery, a wall paper map, a touch screen kiosk or a pocket guide.
We have even gone over creating maps for mobile devices and the constraints that it presents.

Cheers

[blake3030]

Hi Dean

I stumbled across this website whilst searching for some other information about the RMIT course, so I thought i'd sign up. I'm currently in my first semester of Cartography and Geo Vis at RMIT, so i'll probably have you as a teacher sometime next year!

I only recently discovered my liking for maps whilst planning for a long overseas trip (i'm 26). After a degree and a few years working in the boring financial planning industry, i'm hoping this new career path is a lot more interesting and enjoyable. So far, so good. No real Cartography subjects yet though, so i'm really looking forward to getting into it next year.

You mentioned you did some GIS analysis work during your degree. How deep does the course go into that side of things? Do many people doing the course move fully into that area and get work as a GIS officer or something along those lines? I've found the GIS related subject i'm doing quite interesting and am just wondering if that's something the course spends a fair bit of time on over the three years.

[d_say]

Hi Blake,

Did you enroll into the subject mid year? I teach the first year students for Cartography 1 and Applied Geospatial Techniques so yes you will have me as a teacher in the coming years. You might even have me teaching you now if you are enrolled in AGT.

Regarding the GIS based work there was a bit of it. As you will have to undertake SIS1, SIS2 and SIS4 as part of the Carto degree so you will play around with this a bit. It really is up to you how deep you want to get involved into the GIS. I was more interested in the design aspect of Cartography so thats where i focused most of my attention. Several of my friends who did the Carto course with me have moved on to get jobs that are primarily based with working in GIS environments. So yes you can move into that field.

Cheers,
Dean

[MapMedia]

Hello Dean! Welcome!