ABSTRACT
Any map starts with a blank sheet. The conception phase, requiring reflection, comes first. The conception phase is also an exploratory phase in which the map designer will test different hypotheses and envisage the spatial configurations of the different pieces of geographical information. The conception and the actual production, pointing to two intellectual approaches. The first process (in green on the following diagram) tends to be governed by the data – its nature, how it is to be converted, how it is to be processed, its translation into graphic form, and the layout on a spatial medium. The second process (in blue) reverses the reasoning by starting from a cartographic reflection and the idea of the message to be produced. These two approaches to constructing a map are of course closely linked and overlapping. Cartographic images should sum up the geographical information in immediately perceptible form.
