A great campus map does more than prevent people from getting lost. It sets a visual tone, establishes an identity and shapes how visitors experience an environment. When tasked with designing a new map for the prestigious Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, the cartographic team at Lovell Johns faced a distinct challenge: how to faithfully represent a cutting-edge scientific hub while showcasing its green and natural surroundings.
There were a number of key elements to this commission:
- Defining the Purpose and Target Audience
The new map design had to fulfil a number of requirements. For Harwell, the map needed to be multi-functional, working for:
- Pedestrians & Visitors: Clear wayfinding to help navigate the complex building clusters.
- Delivery Drivers: Describe the road layout and access points.
- Stakeholders: Providing a premium, polished graphic that communicates a world-class science hub.
The team established an early artistic direction by providing sketches, mapping out the proposed scale and perspective required to encompass the entire campus.
- Finding Perspective: The Power of 3D Realism
While traditional flat 2D maps work well for floor plans, large campuses can feel disconnected when viewed strictly from a top-down perspective. The cartographers chose an angled, perspective view (oblique 3D rendering).
- Orientation: Angling the view lets users visualize building frontages and distinct structural rooflines, making on the ground wayfinding far easier.
- Landmarks: Agreed key scientific facilities and landmarks are custom illustrated to pop out from the base map, creating stand out anchor points to aid orientation.
- Merging Infrastructure with Nature
As Harwell is such a green campus, a key requirement of was to show off the natural setting of the site.
- Generalisation & Simplification: Rather than to stick to a strict portrayal of every ground feature as seen on source imagery, our cartographers deliberately struck a balance between structural accuracy and artistic license.
- Environmental Accents: The design highlights green spaces, tree canopies and and lawns around the modern infrastructure and materials, softening the corporate layout and reflecting the true open-air feel of the site.
- Colour, Typography, and Hierarchy
Mindful of legibility and accessibility, the map has been designed to take account of:
- Colour Coding: Roads, parking areas, footpaths and distinct zones are clearly delineated using a bespoke, on-brand colour palette.
- Labelling Placement: Labels are carefully placed so text never overlaps or compromises underlying detail such as paths, using a logical visual hierarchy across the entire map.
The Finished Destination
The finalized map delivers an engaging overview that functions equally well as a large-scale physical welcome board, a downloadable PDF, or an asset for digital media. By combining precise geographic data with creative illustration, the cartographic design transforms a standard road network into an inviting and easily readable campus map.
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