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| CARTOGRAPHER AND PUBLISHER EASTWEST MAPPING HAS ENJOYED MANY BUSINESS BENEFITS AS A RESULT OF BRINGING ITS DESKTOP PUBLISHING, IMAGING AND WEB DESIGN IN-HOUSE. |
Formed in 1990 by husband and wife team, Barry Dalby and Christine Moore, EastWest Mapping specialises in recreational and tourism mapping for walkers, cyclists, and hiking groups worldwide who are keen to explore the beautiful countryside of Ireland. The couple run the £50,000 turnover business from the family home in rural Clonegal, County Wexford, in the south-east of the Republic of Ireland. The duo research, produce and supply colour guides and books for retail outlets and mail order, and also provide a variety of cartographic and mapping services for other publishers and for the tourism development groups of local authorities.
Using Adobe software, the small, family-run firm has been able to save time and money, dramatically reduced the scanning, design and layout work sent to outside agencies, launched a successful and professional-looking web site, and expanded its business portfolio. Overall, the quality of EastWest Mapping’s publications has improved, creating a more professional image of the company and its products.
Additionally, a short learning curve for the new applications meant the initial software investment of about £1,500 was paid back within months.
The right tools for developing the business
Prior to starting the business, Barry’s experience of computers in mapping was limited to three years spent in conventional land surveying, developing software to assess building sites and roads. With a downturn in the building industry, Barry turned to teaching outdoor pursuits for seven years gaining valuable insights into the outdoor recreation business. Perceiving a gap in the market for recreational mapping, Barry & Christine set out to combine both interests. Starting with basic word processing and book keeping applications, the business quickly moved to using cartographic and illustration software.
Creating detailed maps begins, literally, in the field, by walking the route and making notes. These are then combined with information from ordnance survey and forestry maps and a pen and ink drawing produced. In the past, Barry would use Letraset – transfers of letters and symbols – to add detail to maps before having them photographed and the films sent to make printing plates. |
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"We couldn't do any of this so effectively without our desktop publishing software - it really has made the business."
- Barry Dalby,
EastWest Mapping
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This was very tricky work, time-consuming and expensive. In 1992-3 he switched to using specialist cartographic software called OCAD, which he still uses today in conjunction with the Adobe software. However, Barry found that graphic design agencies, print production houses, and many publishers were standardising on Macs and Adobe software, while OCAD ran on a PC. "I found that I couldn’t communicate easily with others, so I bought PC versions of Adobe Illustrator®, Photoshop® and PageMaker software," says Barry. "They’re industry standard, have lots of extra features that complement OCAD's, and they gave me the flexibility to work with others in my industry." Today, Barry uses Illustrator to create cover designs and convert files so that Mac users can read them.
Before using Photoshop, Barry tried Micrographix’s Picture Publisher, but it was no match for Photoshop’s more comprehensive features. "I use Photoshop all the time, for scanning and manipulating images and saving in different file formats for various purposes," says Barry. "It’s great for putting together our small booklets and creating advertising materials, and it’s improved the quality of the images immensely."
Pen and ink map drawings are scanned in, then edited using Photoshop, and the scans used as templates for design in either Illustrator or OCAD. PageMaker is used to do complex layouts suitable for an A2 printing press, and the finished work is then sent as a document file to the print production house to be put on film for the printer. PageMaker is also used to lay out EastWest Mapping’s advertising flyers and its colour catalogues for map sales. "It’s far better doing most of my own production work because it means I save time and money – I no longer have to depend so much on outside agencies," says Barry. "We still have to work with graphic designers if our publisher customers want us to, but now we have compatible systems so everything’s smooth and easy."
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"We look more professional to our customers and that must have boosted our company image. After all, we're just a two-person business, but you'd never think it when you see what we produce."
- Barry Dalby,
EastWest Mapping
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Developing the Web site
In 1997 EastWest Mapping created its own web site. "I initially created the pages using a wizard within Microsoft Word, but the result was rather crude, so last year I bought Adobe PageMill®and re-designed the whole site," says Barry. "It’s very easy to re-write pages using the command features in PageMill - you don’t have to repeat work just to make one change on a page. I use Photoshop to capture images, manipulate them and keep them down to a manageable size."
The web site has been successful in making information readily available for many tourists, particularly those in the UK and USA. Barry bought PageMill because it has features in common with the other Adobe software packages, making the learning curve not so steep. "Time constraints mean that it’s very much a case of finding solutions to problems as you go along, and so if you have that commonality between software it makes the learning process quicker," says Barry.
Saving money and looking forward
The payback from EastWest Mapping’s investment in Adobe’s software is impressive. Barry says, "Over the years we’ve saved thousands of pounds using Adobe’s products, and we also now produce more material that we couldn’t or wouldn’t have thought of creating before, to better quality and for less expense. We look more professional to our customers and that must have boosted our company image. After all, we’re just a two-person business, but you’d never think it when you see what we produce."
For the future, Barry intends to explore digital printing, bringing the last part of his business’s production process in-house. "We would like to be able to print on demand instead of using conventional colour offset printing. That would be more efficient, and also us to expand our range of publications" says Barry. He concludes, "We couldn’t do any of this so effectively without our desktop publishing software – it really has made the business."
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