13 replies to this topic

[David Medeiros]

When doing small one-off jobs for something like a magazine, what's your normal or preferred method of inserting your authorship and copyright info? Do you put just your name? Name, year and website or email? Where on the map & how small? Style suggestions?

dave

[razornole]

When doing small one-off jobs for something like a magazine, what's your normal or preferred method of inserting your authorship and copyright info? Do you put just your name? Name, year and website or email? Where on the map & how small? Style suggestions?

dave

For me I will only sign maps that I approve of with my name/year and e-mail address. I will say that I have done more jobs where I don't sign my name then jobs that I do sign my name. For example I just had a client that wanted the roads to be shown in blue, and I explained why they shouldn't but they didn't care. I did the job, took the money, but didn't want my name or credibility associated with a map that had blue roads.

If I sign maps, you can usually find it in the bottom left corner (if possible), and I usually stick to five or six point font and try to make it blend in as much as possible. i.e. I don't want anyone seeing it unless they are looking for it.

kru

[Dennis McClendon]

Generally 5 or 6 pt, same size as a streetname, vertically in lower right or lower left. Usually says
Map ©2010 Chicago CartoGraphics • 312 322 0900
but in various situations I may not use the copyright notice or the phone number. In a magazine, I might only put Chicago CartoGraphics.

[David Medeiros]

Thanks guys. Part of my concern is that as I get more "professional" jobs where my work will be appearing in legitimate publications, I don't have what I consider professional looking contact information. I guess my business name would be Medeiros Cartography, but my web address is MapBliss.com (a hold over from when I did nothing but wedding locators). And my contact email is @sonic.net, my internet provider.

I like Medeiros Cartography as my identifier, but I'm not sure it will always return my page in a web search while www.mapbliss.com always points to my site. Also it's a mouthful and prone to misspellings if a potential client is trying to remember it.

Anyway, here are few versions of what I'm considering:

© Medeiros Cartography • www.mapbliss.com

© David Medeiros • www.mapbliss.com

© Medeiros Cartography • dmed@sonic.net

[Hans van der Maarel]

You could of course get a relevant domain name with Medeiros in it and set up a website and email address on that domain.

[David Medeiros]

You could of course get a relevant domain name with Medeiros in it and set up a website and email address on that domain.

Iv'e thought of that, but again the issue with my name being a little long and not exactly spelled how it sounds to some people makes that a complicated choice. I actually signed up for another domain name through my service provider while they where doing a free promotion but I haven't actually populated the site yet. Its' www.novomaps.com. Novo being Portuguese for New.. so "new maps". I couldn't think of anything else

[Charles Syrett]

Novomaps: The folks at Novoprint may not be very happy about that.

I understand about not using your name; I've avoided using mine for the same reason. I've always liked Mapbliss! Heck, a few years back I even toyed with changing my name to "MapHappy". But I guess only map folks like us are actually blissed-out by maps....

About signing my name: I'm usually pretty cautious about this. I've had so many of my maps butchered by html and desktop publishing (usually resizing without retaining proportion)....not to mention havoc wreaked by well-meaning designers on editable files.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[David Medeiros]

Novomaps: The folks at Novoprint may not be very happy about that.

I understand about not using your name; I've avoided using mine for the same reason. I've always liked Mapbliss! Heck, a few years back I even toyed with changing my name to "MapHappy". But I guess only map folks like us are actually blissed-out by maps....

About signing my name: I'm usually pretty cautious about this. I've had so many of my maps butchered by html and desktop publishing (usually resizing without retaining proportion)....not to mention havoc wreaked by well-meaning designers on editable files.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

I like MapBliss too though I worry about it being a little too cute for a legitimate business name! If I'd had any idea where my life would be taking me when I first started doing freelancing I would have given that name a little more thought when I created the domain. The issue I face now is, its out there, on a bunch of work and resumes and I can't really change it now I guess.

What I really need is to get back to a boring desk job so I won't have to worry about this anymore! I wonder if "The Accidental Cartographer" is taken hmm, too accurate, and long.

[Dennis McClendon]

Sixteen years ago, long before Google, when there was just something called "Directory Assistance," I carefully chose my business name with findability in mind. I figured that if a potential client wasn't bright enough to figure out how to contact a business named "Chicago CartoGraphics," I probably wasn't going to be happy working with them.

[natcase]

One thing to keep in mind is, a personal name implies human attention and craft: authors, musicians and artists use a personal name. "Maps.com" however (to pick the most obvious example) looks to people like a big corporation that must therefore be populated by interchangeable map-making cogs. Neither of these is necessarily actually true, but depending on how you want to market yourself (a provider of maps who will always be there and is therefore "professional" vs. a designer with a particular craft and style), how you name yourself makes a difference. If you carry a generic name, you then have to quickly persuade clients you are a real person with a human face; if you carry a personal name, you need to persuade them you are professional and prompt and efficient and so on.

I think that's how it workd, in broad strokes. Does that sound right to other folks here?

[Charles Syrett]

Well, sounds right theoretically, but.....look at some of the largest, most "faceless" mapping companies of the last 100 years or so. Bartholomew, Rand McNally, Gousha....all named after real flesh and blood people. And then there are the smaller companies with more generic names: Chicago Cartographics, Map Graphics! Whatever the common perceptions and assumptions are, they always have a way of being refuted by facts.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[natcase]

Well, sounds right theoretically, but.....look at some of the largest, most "faceless" mapping companies of the last 100 years or so. Bartholomew, Rand McNally, Gousha....all named after real flesh and blood people. And then there are the smaller companies with more generic names: Chicago Cartographics, Map Graphics! Whatever the common perceptions and assumptions are, they always have a way of being refuted by facts.

Yup. And I am speaking of first impressions. Those examples are of course huge, but at least the two with a single name (Bartholomew and HM Gousha) have an initial sense of being published by a person. I'm talking about initial brand impression: Bartles & Jaymes vs. Pepsi, J Peterman vs Costco.... This in the end has little to do with who you actually are as a company, but a lot to do with what you look like at first glance, which is worth taking seriously.

[itsAcapita]

Is citing where you found datasets not necessary, if its being made for a company?

[Dennis McClendon]

There's no easy answer to that. Sometimes the licensing agreement with the data provider will ask for a credit. But much more often it's a question of whether it's useful to or expected by the audience for the map. A simple map showing Italy for a travel magazine would not need to credit the clip-art provider. But if the same map shows what parts might be inundated by a ten-meter rise in sea levels, or even better, how wine-growing regions might shift with a two-degree rise in atmospheric temperature, the audience might expect to see a citation showing how that delineation was arrived at.

Academic publishing is usually pretty careful about citing both the inspiration and data sources for maps. General publishing much less so. Technical reports are often somewhere in the middle.