Premium Cartographic Designer / Map Artist — Creative Design + GIS Production Collaboration

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Premium Cartographic Designer / Map Artist — Creative Design + GIS Collaboration

PROJECT OVERVIEW

We are developing a premium personalized wall-art product built around sports travel history.

The first product is a 32×24 landscape map representing a college football fan’s personal road-trip journey. Customers select the cities they have visited, and those locations are shown using defined SELECTED and UNSELECTED treatments within a fixed geographic composition.

We are NOT looking for a generic graphic designer, logo designer, or social-media artist.

We are looking for an experienced CARTOGRAPHIC DESIGNER / MAP ARTIST who can:

1. create premium, collectible wall art with strong visual and emotional appeal; and
2. collaborate intelligently with an existing GIS specialist so the final artwork becomes a reliable production master, not just a beautiful standalone illustration.

WHAT ALREADY EXISTS

This is not a blank-sheet project.

We already have:

• an authoritative 67-location geographic dataset;
• permanent IDs and fixed coordinates for every location;
• a working QGIS/GIS technical proof;
• documented projection / CRS / registration architecture;
• a GIS/cartographic specialist who will remain involved;
• existing creative concepts and source materials;
• a defined 32×24 landscape format; and
• a clear premium visual direction.

We will provide an inspiration/reference board showing the visual style we want to achieve.

We are not looking for broad speculative concept exploration. We need someone capable of taking a clear visual direction through final creative execution and technical integration.

THE CREATIVE GOAL

The finished product should feel like premium collectible wall art first and a technical map second.

Desired characteristics:

• premium / heirloom / collectible;
• sophisticated and dimensional;
• map-first rather than infographic-first;
• visually rich without becoming cluttered;
• restrained use of accent color;
• strong terrain/geographic character;
• emotionally compelling at 32×24;
• elegant integration of personalized city locations;
• intentional Hawaii treatment;
• strong typography and title hierarchy;
• polished enough to feel gift-worthy and worth framing.

We want to avoid work that feels like:

• a generic sports poster;
• a corporate presentation graphic;
• a basic GIS screenshot;
• a data visualization;
• or decorative elements placed around a map.

Strong visual map design is the primary hiring criterion.

THE GIS / CARTOGRAPHIC FOUNDATION

Our GIS specialist controls the authoritative geographic system.

Important rules include:

• 67 fixed display locations;
• each location has a permanent ID;
• points are tied to authoritative coordinates;
• geographic anchors should NOT be moved simply to improve the composition;
• label offsets may be adjusted without moving geographic anchors;
• projection, extent and registration must remain reproducible;
• Hawaii requires an intentional inset/composition treatment;
• locations need to remain independently addressable;
• customer orders apply SELECTED state to chosen IDs and UNSELECTED state to all others.

The designer should be comfortable designing AROUND those constraints rather than manually moving geography until it looks attractive.

WHAT THIS ROLE NEEDS TO DO

This person is not replacing our GIS specialist.

The role is to bridge:

1. technically correct, repeatable GIS/cartographic production; and
2. premium, emotionally compelling map artwork.

The selected designer will be expected to:

• review our inspiration board and existing project materials;
• develop/refine the approved premium visual direction;
• work with the supplied geographic framework rather than recreating city geography manually;
• collaborate with our GIS specialist where needed;
• create attractive SELECTED / UNSELECTED treatments;
• design around fixed geographic anchors;
• help resolve label treatment in dense areas;
• create an intentional Hawaii treatment;
• maintain strong title/typography hierarchy;
• keep printed location labels CITY NAME ONLY;
• organize the creative master so it can integrate cleanly with QGIS;
• provide professional layered source files another designer/cartographer can maintain later.

FINAL PRODUCTION MASTER REQUIREMENTS

The reusable master should support:

• 32×24 landscape output;
• fixed registered geographic composition;
• all 67 authoritative locations;
• CITY NAME ONLY on the artwork;
• customer-specific SELECTED / UNSELECTED states;
• independently controllable location elements where practical;
• reproducible label positioning;
• intentional Hawaii integration;
• editable artwork title;
• complete branded and generic/unbranded states where required;
• licensed marks isolated/toggleable from the base composition;
• logical named layers/groups;
• editable vector/live content where practical;
• print-ready output;
• approximately 300 effective PPI preferred for important raster artwork at final size, 150 PPI minimum;
• complete linked assets;
• font identification;
• third-party asset/license disclosure;
• organized editable source files.

PROJECT STRUCTURE

We are hiring for the actual project, not a separate test assignment.

We expect to use milestone-based delivery approximately as follows:

MILESTONE 1 — CREATIVE DIRECTION / VISUAL LOCK

Using the supplied inspiration/reference material and existing concepts, bring the map to the premium visual direction we approve.

MILESTONE 2 — CARTOGRAPHIC / GIS INTEGRATION

Work with the authoritative geographic framework and our GIS specialist to integrate:

• fixed location anchors;
• labels;
• SELECTED / UNSELECTED states;
• Hawaii;
• dense-area treatment;
• title/personalization structure;
• final map composition.

MILESTONE 3 — FINAL PRODUCTION MASTER + HANDOFF

Deliver:

• organized editable source;
• linked assets;
• final 32×24 production master;
• branded/generic states where required;
• print-ready output;
• font/asset/license documentation;
• clean layer/group organization;
• technically clean handoff to our GIS specialist.

Final payment will depend on verified editable/source-file handoff, not merely a flattened final image.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

You are NOT being hired to:

• rebuild Shopify;
• build Gelato fulfillment;
• build customer-order automation;
• write a standalone application;
• research historical football games;
• invent city coordinates;
• replace our GIS specialist;
• manually reposition authoritative geographic points;
• rebuild the GIS architecture from scratch.

IDEAL BACKGROUND

Relevant backgrounds may include:

• cartographic design;
• editorial maps;
• premium map posters;
• travel/tourism maps;
• illustrated maps;
• outdoor / national-park mapping;
• geographic data visualization with strong design sensibility;
• high-end print cartography.

QGIS or ArcGIS experience is helpful.

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, or equivalent professional vector experience is highly desirable.

You do NOT need to be a GIS programmer.

We need a strong visual map designer who is technically literate enough to collaborate effectively with a GIS specialist.

WHEN APPLYING

Please do NOT send a generic graphic-design portfolio.

Please send 3–6 examples that specifically demonstrate map/cartographic design, preferably including premium print or wall-art work.

For relevant examples, briefly tell us:

• what you personally created;
• what tools you used;
• whether GIS/geographic data was involved;
• whether the work was produced for print.

Please also answer:

1. Which tools do you normally use for cartographic design?

2. How comfortable are you working with QGIS/ArcGIS geographic data while completing visual design in Illustrator or another vector application?

3. If a GIS specialist controls authoritative coordinates, projection, extent and registration, how would you normally collaborate with that person?

4. How would you approach creating premium wall art while preserving fixed geographic anchors and repeatable label placement?

5. Which portfolio piece is closest to the premium/collectible visual quality we are seeking, and why?

6. Are you comfortable delivering organized editable source files, linked assets and clearly named layers/groups?

IMPORTANT

Please do not submit AI-generated map concepts as evidence of professional cartographic experience.

We are specifically looking for demonstrated:

• strong map-design judgment;
• premium visual sensibility;
• geographic/cartographic literacy;
• layered/editable production capability;
• and the ability to collaborate across creative and technical disciplines.

SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE THIS:

A map that looks premium enough to sell as collectible wall art, respects authoritative geography, works cleanly with our GIS production architecture, can be personalized repeatedly without rebuilding the composition, and can be maintained by future professionals rather than depending on one individual.