SDG in the running for British Cartographic Society Awards

Following Steer Davies Gleave’s 2009 success, achieving a commendation for their Canary Wharf Route Planner in the British Cartographic Society’s Annual Awards , the company now has two new projects in the running for this year’s awards.

The first is for cutting edge map technology development work for ATAC S.p.A who run Rome’s Public Transport Information System, originally developed by Steer Davies Gleave in 1997. With demands growing for new and increasingly sophisticated map products on ATAC’s in-house design team, Steer Davies Gleave was commissioned to help them overcome the challenge of meeting these demands with limited time and resources. Working closely with ATAC, our cartography and design teams standardised the range of printed outputs, improving quality and consistency and developed a dynamic processes to optimise production workflow.

A new, street level base map of the Rome and Lazio region was created. This was then embedded in a mapping application developed by Steer Davies Gleave that links dynamically into the client’s geographic dataset; accessing and overlaying bus, rail, tram and Metro service data directly from the Operations department. This process has significantly reduced the need for manual intervention, freeing the department from unproductive activities and resulting in ATAC meeting the growing demands for accurate and easy to use information from their staff and customers. This project is in the running for the <strong>Avenza Award for Electronic Mapping.

Steer Davies Gleave also has a project challenging for the Stanfords Award for Printed Mapping, with the development of Colchester’s highly successful Cycle Colchester Maps. Steer Davies Gleave was originally commissioned to create the Cycle Colchester visual identity and communication concepts. Following this initial commission we successfully bid to design a suite of cycle maps that includes a city wide map, local area route maps and bespoke cycle route markers, now implemented across the area.

This series of maps is unusual as it combines expert knowledge of the area with cartographic design to promote areas that are safe for cycling, rather than concentrating solely on formal routes with cycle infrastructure.

The recently revamped Awards are designed to showcase work created through traditional, new or even experimental techniques and the ceremony will be presented at a Gala dinner in Nottingham on Thursday 10th June 2010.

Notes:

1. Steer Davies Gleave is also leading on the delivery of behavioural change work including personalised travel planning and public consultation to promote the Cycle City initiative.
2. For more information visit the symposium page of the BCS website: http://www.cartography.org.uk/symposium