“We have a unique style, pallette and typography”

Mission of National Geographic?

The mission on National Geographic is “the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge” taken more broadly it also entails inspiring people to care about the planet.

What kinds of maps are prepared? What’s so unique about them?

We create a variety of political, thematic, physical, and topographic maps. With few exceptions we produce all our maps. We do have a couple of products where we’ve licensed map data from MapQuest or Collins Bartholomew but the vast majority is NG data and NG created.NG began making maps for the Magazine in 1917. Since then we’ve continued to provide maps that tell of current events, give special glimpses into historical events, and inform the reader about the world and environment. We have the largest collection of thematic maps in addition to our political, physical and topographic maps. Over this course of time, NG has been the world’s most widely respected and best know cartographicinstitution covering the world from the summit of Mt. Everest to the depths of the oceans. We have a unique style, pallette and typography. In addition have been a cartographic authority for decades.

Are they of educational purposes?

Our maps serve multiple markets and consumers but a definitely used by both educators, students and a wide range of professionals. Much of this map content is viewable on our mapmachine website but to use it requires a purchase or license.

How affordable are these maps?

We think our maps are very affordable and are subject to the economic pressures of the market. The quality and uniqueness does afford us the greater ability to maintain current prices.

The challenges you face in producing maps?

Probably the two biggest challenges we face in producing maps relates to starting with good base data depending on the intended scale of the map, secondly is gaining broader distribution digitally and in retail.

GoogleEarth vis-a-vis NatGeo?

GoogleEarth is a great combination of search and visualization. National Geographic is much more about the authority of its content, depth/breath of experience, and the ability to do spatial storytelling. In fact we feel we are a nice complement to GoogleEarth and have programs in place to display georeferenced content on their platform.

		Says Fran Marshall, President, NG Maps on National Geographic mandates and activities