Cover plate for the CanTopo map series.

CanTopo 92G/3, Lulu Island

The ‘Librarian’s Block’. Essential map identifiers are curated into special block of information located in the lower right corner of the map. This facilitates finding maps which are stored flat in a map cabinet.

Urban areas are rendered in a warm grey to agree with a more logical hierarchy, and to harmonize with the new road network colour story.  Part of the boundary colour way is evident, too.  Type is simplified with a single, unifying type family.

UTM grid & notations, and geographic grid.

Map data was reorganized based on constructed graphic signatures. Each information type was collected and represented through a meaningful graphic form and an appropriate colour story. Sand and ‘sandy’ land features are unified through a palette of textures based on small brownish grey dots. Precise interventions produced variations on the idea of sand (1), that then serve other ‘sandy’ features such as gravel (2), alluvium (3) as well as moraines and glacial debris (4).

Categorial insertions operate recursively, with one meaning (colour) being embedded within another meaning (form) to produce an easy to read compound meaning. This compound meaning can be inserted within another form to create further meaning. This is an open system that is able to absorb further amendments and anticipated needs. Here we see two chromatic signatures used for two different textures: rapids and fish pound.

The new glacier symbol.

Glacier and ice shelf have a single texture while also using the chromatic signatures for ‘water.  They are distinguished by the how the colours are applied.

Textures from CanTopo map 45-J/11… tundra ponds, swamp, tundra polygons and sand.  The palette of textures was designed to have the same visual weight and work within a restricted colour range. This insures harmony and balance.

Studies for the community center symbol, categorized for analysis.

The boundary symbol library previously contained 13 lines, 10 of which were dominated by a grey backer. The intent was to make boundary classes explicit, but with this came a complexity which was difficult to penetrate. In CanTopo, boundary classes are abandoned in favour of giving voice to boundary types: geographic, administrative and recreational. Now, rather that wrestling with what a boundary class means, the map reader may now know, at a glance, the boundary type and, by extension, the land contained within.