Modern Cartographer, Hand-drawn Maps

KVOA, a Tucson, Arizona television station, has the story of a Flagstaff cartographer, Alex DiNatale, who has reverted to drawing maps by hand, in the style of late 19th-century surveyors’ maps:

“This is like a lost art,” DiNatale said. “It’s relaxing and stuff that’s been in my head 10 to 15 years.” […]
When DiNatale works in his professional capacity, his work is computer generated.
But the allure of the hand-drawn map to him is unmistakable.
“(Computer-generated mapping) is not as good as the hand stuff,” DiNatale said. “Not as personal.”

He anticipates offering reproductions of some of his maps at some point.

Posted on Monday, February 12, 2007 at 6:18 PM
Categories: Cartography

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Comments

The story’s great, but you spelled “Tucson” wrong like any non-Arizonan. Have your editors check your story before you post it. And if this is how the editor’s fault, then shame on them.

-A “Tucsonan”-

Ian Oswald | 02/14/2007 at 3:54 PM | #

1. It’s a typo. Chill. I’ll fix it presently.

2. Editors? There’s just me here.

Jonathan Crowe | 02/14/2007 at 4:08 PM | #

Well, I have always held hand-drawn maps to be superior, not for emotional or sentimental reasons alone, but for the simple fact that it is the only way to get a true and pleasing curve. I have not seen a single map produced in the last ten years or more that has done that. Nice to have relief backgrounds, but we had that in the 70s. No-one has topped Gousha’s mapping for consumers.

SDZ | 02/14/2007 at 10:27 PM | #

I am a land surveyor with a small 6-person private practice in Michigan.

Ours was one of the last survey companies to convert to CAD. I prefer the old drawings with technical pen and India ink. Eventually, in 1998, we simply had to convert to CAD for competitive purposes.

Through the 1990s, we had a drafter on staff who was a very good artist. Each survey drawing had a unique north arrow, usually customized to the specific project or client. For instance, a boundary survey of the home of the local McDonald’s franchisee has a north arrow that incorporated a distinct pair of arches. Most clients appreciated it. Very rarely one would complain that the art was “unprofessional.”

I miss the old pen-and-ink maps. They had a warmth and humanity that will never be possible with computer-generated maps.

However, in our office, we have none of the old technical pens, nor any of the other old drafting paraphernalia. It’s all digital now.

Brian Reynolds | 02/16/2007 at 8:33 PM | #

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