3 replies to this topic

[MaryLynne]

Hi there. I work for the City of Aspen & Pitkin County, Colorado GIS Department. We have awesome terrain and have the potential to make really cool maps, but I seem stuck making generic maps. I have been using ESRI's 9.1 products and occasionally experiement with exporting the maps to Adobe Illustrator to finish the map.

I learned about CartoTalk at my first NACIS meeting this fall, were I was definately inspired by members to push my mapping skills to a higher level. So here I am to read, contribute and learn.

My avatar? He's a newfoundland dog!

MaryLynne

[Matthew Hampton]

Welcome MaryLynne,

It is nice to have another westerner on the boards that has a GIS background and gets stuck making generic maps for cities/counties.

I am envious of your topographical potential. I think I would be draping everything on a hillshade if I was in your shoes...

[BEAVER]

I know how you feel. I had a job offer for engineering position where I was offered more money, but would have to go back to drawing in AutoCad with everything being 2D lines and arcs. I end up not taking the job. I would hate to be in a place like Colorado and having all my projects being flat road maps with so many possibilities of creating some beautiful shaded, textured, topo maps.

Boy, it's dead in here over the holidays.

[Mike H]

Hi Mary Lynne,

One idea that comes to mind is some local networking.

The next time you are heading to Denver you should set up a meeting with the cartographers at Trails Illustrated/Nat'l Geographic (right on I-70 between Idaho Springs and Evergreen)

I bet David Lambert and Doug Volkel would be happy to show you what they do, and since they do alot of Colorado titles, you have common ground (literally).

They outsource a lot of the GIS, and do final design/prepress in Freehand, but the overall design principles should give you a lot of creative ideas.

m.