Maps are the “tip of the iceberg” for most public interest groups working with GIS – after all the careful design and analysis of your data is done, that information must be transformed to a visual image that can inspire, persuade or inform your audience. 

GreenInfo Network has outstanding cartographic and graphic design skills for the creation of compelling maps and related visual pieces. There is an art and a science to creating maps that instantly articulate a specific and meaningful message. Our maps also bring a level of professional quality that complements the nature and necessity of your work. As these maps are often the “public face” of the work of your organization, we make every attempt to make sure that they deliver the message you want.

We maintain a full suite of cartographic tools and expertise. Our main tool is ESRI’s ArcGIS package of software. As needed, we supplement these tools with computer illustration and photo editing software, such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, to enhance our maps. We can use these tools to match the existing look and feel of your organization, or we can help develop one for you.

Most importantly, we can work with you no matter what your experience has been. If you have specific text and colors that you need matched perfectly, or if you just want to leave it all up to us, we can get you what you need.

Our maps can be designed for publication through a GIS system, or as the basis for files that will be offset printed (4 color or equivalent). If you intend to produce a map for offset printing it is essential to tell us that as early as possible, as bridging between maps produced in GIS on a plotter/printer and offset printing can be an involved task.

Here are two examples of our mapping strategies and products:

• Friends of Harbors, Beaches & Parks – Orange County “Green Vision" – Friends of Harbors, Beaches & Parks (FHBP), a local Orange County nonprofit organization, set out to create a “vision” for open space protection for the county. With growing energy around individual local projects, FHBP saw this as an opportunity to network these efforts and encourage thinking about the “bigger picture” of regional conservation planning. GIN worked with FHBP, local agencies, and a number of nonprofit organizations to create a GIS database of conservation activity, incorporating currently protected lands, active “hot spots” of conservation activity, and longer-term protection goals. The resulting Orange County “Green Vision” map has become integral to FHBP education, advocacy, and planning work and is now a common tool used by local and state agencies and conservation groups working in the region.

• Latinos and Water in California – Latino Issues Forum (LIF), a nonprofit public policy group, was producing a publication on water policy in California, with particular focus on impacts on the Latino community. They needed strong graphic images to support their contentions and to easily communicate potentially complex concepts. GIN, working with Census 2000 and other data, created a series of maps depicting key pieces of California’s water system and interaction with Latino populations. The series paired compelling maps with tables and charts to create full information pieces that were not only incorporated directly into the report, but also serve as standalone informational flyers. Click here for the online version of the report. LIF found the “picture is worth a thousand word” mantra true in this case: the maps were able to quickly and effectively communicate key concepts of a complicated issue.

Other examples of our mapping capacities: 

• Southern California wetlands projects (right)
• The distribution of poverty in Los Angeles, California (bottom left)
• Water quality analysis in urban watershed (bottom middle)
• The block-by-block distribution of the Asian population of San Francisco (bottom right)