It turns out that Facebook has actual utility, as proven by its ability to connect two of my favorite people, JC McElveen (Alexandria) and Claudia Carlson (NYC). Claudia is a book designer and illustrator who’s done many maps for fantasy books, and JC is the speaker selector for the Washington Map Society.
Two of my favorite people together at the Library of Congress: JC McElveen (l) and Claudia Carlson (r). Claudia was at the LOC to give a talk on fantasy maps, which she illustrates.
From their website:
On Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 7:00 p.m., Claudia Carlson will speak on Mapping Real and Imaginary Worlds: Graphic Design in the Pursuit of Learning. Almost every reader has encountered a book that has used a map to clarify locations. Ms. Carlson, a graphic designer, will discuss how she creates maps for books, whether those maps represent real or imaginary places. She will discuss her sources of information and the techniques she uses to accomplish her results. Claudia Carlson began her post-graduate career in the art departments of several publishers, including Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Oxford University Press, where she served, for six years, as senior book designer. She has also worked as an online design consultant at Viacom Intranet, Simon & Schuster Intranet and Showtime Networks Intranet. Currently, she runs her own graphic design firm: ClaudiaGraphics Design Services.
The event was a great success, though Claudia went into it with some trepidation about what a bunch of serious map geeks (my word, not Claudia’s) would make of maps from fantasy realms. She needn’t have worried.
Claudia's Turkish Reflections
From the nodded heads that bobbled in appreciation every time she described the research into period, geography and culture that preceded each map, to her discussion of the evolution of illustration technology over her career, the audience was totally engaged. The question and answer session had some lively bits, including a call for Claudia to make a digital collection of her maps available to the Library, and an offer from the master map curator of the LOC, Ralph Eherenberger, to come back for a behind the scenes tour of the Library’s collection.
Unlike most meetings of the society, this one drew out a number of non-members as suddenly spouses found maps intersting. My gal EJ and JC’s gal Mary were both in attendance and delighted with the talk. Props, btw, to Jim Rascheff, Claudia’s guy, for hauling gear and running the Powerpoint. Jim’s a play and songwriter who’s returning to to China soon to work on a musical as he’s done four times already. Does anyone know how to say “Break a leg” in Madarin?
My only regret was that my other favorite CC, Colleen Cahill, couldn’t be there, as she was at the Capclave GOH dinner. Colleen, in another bit of cosmic coincidence actually works in the LOC map center, and her office was directly behind us as Claudia gave her talk. I’ll get them together sooner or later though.
Links/References
- Washington Map Society: http://www.washmap.org
- Claudiagraphics (Claudia’s Design Agency): http://www.claudiagraphics.com/
- Elephant House (Claudia’s Blog): http://claudiacarlson.blogspot.com/