The professor gave us a piece of paper and a pencil during class. It was enough to arouse curiosity because I did not know the reason for giving this paper. The professor told me to write a map in Ames on that piece of paper. He gave me 5 minutes, and I had to draw only my imagination in my head without looking at any information. I slowly imagined Ames and first drew my house on the corner of a piece of paper. Most of the time, I was going to school and imagining the view over the bus I was riding on. It was the map of Ames that I thought of drawing the house as the main focus and along the bus route to the school.
The professor started asking various questions to the students who had finished drawing. Did you indicate the direction on the map picture? Did you write the title of the map? And does the picture on the map match the direction? It was enough time to rethink these questions about the map. When I drew the map, I drew the road going up by a bus with the main focus on the house I live in, and I drew the road going down, but in reality, the place I drew above was in the north direction. If someone looked at my map and found Ames, he was sure to get lost.
The professor then prepared a piece of paper and gave it to us. This time, he asked me to draw a map with the theme of Iowa State University. This time it came a little more difficult for me. It’s only been half a year since I’ve been to school, so the campus is still unfamiliar to me. Again, I started drawing maps based on the design department I attend the most. Then I drew the four buildings I knew, labeled them, and sketched out the rest of the buildings. After drawing this picture, it was an opportunity to think about how people draw a map and what it takes to draw a map.
I learned how much effort it takes to make a map through this class. Maps represent the real world on a much smaller scale. Maps help you travel from one location to another. It will help you organize your information. Maps help you figure out where you are and where you want to go. That’s why maps should always be able to convey accurate and objective information.
ART & DESiGN JOURNAL 