Beautiful & Functional Map Illustrations
mapformation specializes in the creation of maps and other wayfinding resources that help build and/or reinforce your brand and identity. If you are only looking to move people from "Point A to Point B?" Resources such as Google Maps do the job! But if you want something that is as much "art" as it is "information?" Something that you will feel proud to share with your customers and constituents, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we might be able to help.
work with usOur Clients Include:
WHAT WE DO
Solutions for all Your Mapping Needs
From campus maps and parking/accessibility mapping to interior diagrams and immersive interactive walk-throughs via Matterport technology, mapformation is here to help with your wayfinding needs.
2D Campus Maps (Planimetric & Implied Height)
Also sometimes referred to as planimetric or overhead maps, these images will show the footprints of buildings within a property boundary, as well as sidewalks, parking accommodations, nearby streets, and just about any other types of details that clients desire. They are very popular with individuals in Facilities Management, Public Safety and Accessibility Services departments, as well as individuals who prefer to navigate using street names and distances, as opposed to visual landmarks.
View 2D Campus Maps3D Campus Maps (Vector, Raster & Mixed Media)
Also commonly referred to as bird’s eye, oblique or pictorial maps, these images will showcase a property from a very particular direction and steepness, revealing a great wealth of architectural detail and topographical features. These maps tend to be of particular interest to Public Relations and Admissions personnel who are looking for their campus map to showcase the beauty of their property, as well as to aid individuals who tend to navigate via landmarks and other visual references, as opposed to street names and distances. They cost a great deal more than their 2D perspective counterparts to develop, but their beauty more than makes up for their added costs. They are developed using four different and very unique methods and design tools: Vector, Raster, and Hand-Rendered solutions.
View 3D Campus MapsCartoon-Style Maps
This particular style of map is designed to represent a more fun, casual, child-friendly approach to navigating a particular property. In contrast to our other more formal styles, cartoon-style illustrations include a number of unique design elements that do not directly relate to wayfinding, including the insertion of a number of human figures and other design elements which add a great deal of visual interest to the piece. Venues looking to market themselves to children and their parents tend to be the primary consumers of this type of mapping style, although kids of all ages thoroughly enjoy this fun, relaxed style of illustration, which is created through a combination of work at the drafting table, along with finishing design touches using Adobe Photoshop software.
View Cartoon-Style MapsCemetery Maps
These 2D (planimetric) and 3D (bird’s eye/oblique/pictorial) map illustrations are intended to both inform and serve as artistic illustrations, helping individuals and their family members select final resting places for themselves and their loved ones with confidence. The map illustrations we produce are intended to showcase the beauty of these properties, making them look inviting and peaceful…in direct contrast with the discomfort felt toward cemeteries and masoleums by a certain percentage of the population.
View Cemetery MapsCity & Area maps
This particular style of map is designed to illustrate a client’s immediate location within a larger geographic region, guiding constituents from a general region to their specific property. As a point of differentiation between many standard or canned area mapping providers such as Google Maps and Bing Maps, mapformation specializes in developing maps that are designed for very specific purposes, with only content being displayed that is pertinent to the particular client who has commissioned the project. Our city and area maps artwork is typically created as vector graphics, using a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw software.
View City & Area MapsHotel & Resort Maps
Just as is the case with college and university campuses and corporate campuses, hotels and resorts around the world require great maps to not only to guide their guests on where they are attempting to go, but to also reinforce and expand upon their overall branding and identity efforts. All things being equal, a great map of a resort or hotel that makes the property look attractive and inviting can be the difference between meeting planners electing to hold their events at a property, or electing to book at a competing location. So we do our very-best to make our hotel and resort clients shine in front of their current and prospective customers.
View Hotel and Resort MapsInterior Maps (2D & 3D Floor Diagrams)
This particular style of navigational graphic is designed to illustrate an individual’s location within a building. Common uses of these types of graphics are You Are Here directional signage, handouts at information desks and supporting imagery for virtual tours. Our graphics are frequently used to support emergency evacuation, planning and preparedness efforts, which has become increasingly important in recent years. Our floor diagrams artwork is typically created as vector graphics, using a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw software.
View Interior MapsMapping Series
Several mapformation clients require the creation of hundreds or even thousands of maps for locations that are aesthetically consistent from map to map, while being a bit more unique and appealing compared to “canned” services such as Google or Bing. These series of maps help to reinforce their corporate (or product’s/service’s) brand/identity for various types of print, signage, and electronic output.
Whether it be for hotels, restaurants, insurance agencies, or any other number of locations where corporations and organizations have a large number of properties or franchises, our team has acquired a tremendous amount of expertise in completing these types of projects over the past several years.
View Mapping Series ExamplesMatterport Walk-Throughs
Developed primarily to help realtors promote expensive homes to potential buyers, Matterport technology is being creatively utilized by our firm to help colleges and universities, hotels and resorts, conference centers, and museums promote their venues to potential visitors and meeting/event planners alike. mapformation could not be more excited to be able to offer said technology to our clients, and we believe that it will become one of the most popular offerings of our company in the years ahead.
View Matterport Walk-ThroughsPhotorealistic Maps
For clients who are desiring map illustrations that appear extremely realistic, nearly photographic in quality (though better than a photograph, since all of the less-flattering features of a property and its surroundings will be modified and/or omitted), mapformation is proud to offer the photo-realistic map illustration services of our partner, CampusTours.
View Photorealistic MapsSeating Charts
We have a great deal of experience working on the development of maps and diagrams, and there are a great-many properties in the world that rely on the sale of admission tickets in order to sit in particular locations within an arena or auditorium. Consequently, we believe that a mutually beneficial relationship exists between our prospective clients and our firm. We envision developing all of our seating chart graphics using vector software applications and Trimble Sketchup software, but are very open to exploring all the creative ideas that prospective clients have in mind.
View Seating ChartsSketchUp
The latest trend in 3D perspective campus maps has been to offer not only the traditional view of a campus from a single elevation and direction, but to develop maps in 360-degrees…allowing for infinite combinations of elevations and directions from which to view a property. Costs for developing this advanced style of map design have been prohibitive in the past. However, costs have been coming down, now that more affordable and easy-to-use design tools such as SketchUp have come into the marketplace.
View SketchUp MapsSports & Recreation (Disc Golf & Ski Resorts)
mapformation illustrators have completed hundreds of illustrations for everything from golf courses, disc golf courses and ski resorts, to college and professional sports teams. This category is meant to showcase the depth and range of our skills, as well as the diversity in the industries and geographical regions we have served.
View Sports and Recreation MapsTourism Maps
Numerous local, state/province, and national government agencies have approached our firm over the years, asking us to help develop maps of their regions that will help draw more visitors to their communities, and/or better serve said visitors once they’ve arrived. It is a joy to know that we’re making people’s lives just a bit better/easier as a result of using the illustrations we create! And we are honored at the privilege these communities/regions have entrusted us with in developing materials that represent them as attractively and effectively as is possible.
View Tourism MapsTransit Maps
Through our work with Matt Forrest, mapformation is pleased to offer a variety of transit-related map illustration services to city, county, metro/regional, and national governments throughout the world. Higher education institutions which have shuttle/transit services can also directly benefit from these services, with many of our college and university clientele possessing active transit lines on their campuses.
View Transit MapsZoo Maps
Maps of zoos and wildlife parks are a fun way to combine what is very similar to a traditional campus map with depictions of various wildlife species and plant life. Having three-dimensional depictions of landscapes and structures, along with illustrations of the various animals, also makes for a much more intuitive, efficient way for visitors (end-users) to make quick, informed decisions on which direction they need to go.
These maps are some of the most fun illustrations we have the privilege to create! And we’ll take any/all work we can secure along these lines…as long as the project timelines and budgets are reasonable.
View Zoo MapsABOUT MAPFORMATION
Creating Maps Professionally Since 1992.
30
years of experience650+
happy customers8,000+
maps created20+
map stylesWhenever my map “pants” are on fire, I know to call mapformation for help. Whether it’s a minor touch-up or a major makeover, this team takes care of every step, so all I have to do is make the request and then say thanks when it’s done.
Working with the mapformation team was a pleasure from first contact to final file delivery. The quality of work is top-notch and they were responsive to our needs while being quick to make updates to please our many campus constituent groups. End product is a home run. Even the academics like it!
Working with mapformation on the campus map was a great experience. The entire staff helped make the work manageable and fun for a non-techy person. Michael was great to work with, timely, and professional. The end result is a great campus map that we will be using for many years.
I have greatly enjoyed working with mapformation. Their service and professionalism throughout our project has been top-notch, and we are especially pleased with the end result – an incredible campus map that we can’t wait to use in our publications, on campus signage and our website.
Working with Michael Karpovage and mapformation has been a joy from start to finish. We were in constant contact from the initial discussion of map ideas all the way to final file delivery. The responsiveness by Michael, especially, to last-minute tweaks/changes throughout the process was nothing short of incredible. I wholeheartedly recommend working with Michael and mapformation to anyone considering a mapping project.
Michael is an absolute pleasure to work with! With very little direction, he was able to create an extremely accurate portrayal of The Citadel’s campus. The artwork is beautiful and the detail incredible. I continue to notice new details every time I zoom in! Michael kept us in the loop throughout development, and was very quick to respond to any of our requests. He’s very talented and has an obvious passion for his trade. I’d recommend him to anyone!
This map was literally my guiding light through the city! I lived in Savannah for a while, and went to SCAD Art School there. I recently visited after a long time away, and as soon as I opened the map, all of the wonderful sites and places were right there again, at my fingertips. The birds-eye view is lovely, the artwork is fantastic, and the map is well designed. I highly recommend this map if you are traveling to Savannah. There are many tips on there, such as places to go, bus routes, historical tidbits, places to see and eat, recommended tours, and lodging. It also hangs on my wall as a beautiful souvenir. The map is a visual work of art unto itself! A must have. All the other maps I saw while in town didn’t hold a candle to this one.
At the conclusion of this endeavor, it has been collectively agreed that the finished results speak for themselves. Michael possesses an incredible eye- both for conceptual purposes with creativity and design inspiration, as well as the ability to appreciate and practice working with an immense attention to detail. He is a professional artist, able to create intricate designs and custom illustrations for a multitude of projects and customers. Our newly designed area maps now provide for an attractive and effective way to utilize travel and tourism promotion- for not only our initial local and county needs, but now will also assist with providing a better understanding for the entire Finger Lakes region of New York State.
Gustavus Adolphus College was looking to create their campus into a 3D map to be used virtually and in printed materials. After doing some research and getting a few recommendations, I reached out to Mapformation, where I was introduced to designer/illustrator Michael Karpovage. As a fellow graphic designer with 20 years of experience, Michael’s map illustrations were absolutely mind-blowing! His attention to detail was above and beyond, from the colors of the buildings to the individual light-poles and trees, he created our 3D map so it truly mimicked our campus. Michael was very personable, professional, and also educational (teaching me the 3D map creation processes). Anyone that is looking to get a 3D map created for their campus, I highly recommend Mapformation and Michael Karpovage.
MAP PORTFOLIO
Featured Works
We are proud of all the maps illustrations we've created over the years! That said, here is a small collection of some of our favorites from a few of the projects that stand out in our memories.