**1. Introduction**

All maps are creative efforts as they are designed, prepared and produced by humans, whether children in elementary grades or adults using super technologies. Maps are also information products that contain material the designer or the client, whether a scholarly community, corporation or state, wishes to display. Behind those constructions are many questions about the map designer her/himself, why the map was constructed, the person or organization funding the production and the desired uses of the final product. These why, for whom, and so what questions are foundational in looking at any map considered, constructed and used. Because of the individual, state and corporate incentives behind map constructions, it needs to be recognized that maps themselves represent some creativity. Two or three individuals constructing a map of a region or showing the same specific feature can produce a different map in size and content as well as colors, scales, legends and title. Those variations themselves represent creative efforts on the part of the designer and producer for the intended audience.

What is important to recognize in any map construction is the creative skills and talents the cartographer brings to the task and the final product. Mapmakers or cartographers can be grouped into several categories, including those that have keen imaginations and talents and those that are simply using an existing map or

#### **Figure 1.**

*Evolution of creative mapping: From sticks and stones to GPS maps and apps.*

*Perspective Chapter: Creative Mapping and Mapping Creativity DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102729*

constructing one with only some slight variation in content or projection. There are all kinds of cartographers along this continuum. Those variations in talents were displayed in early cartographers drawing lines on the earth's surface or sketches on cave walls or stone or wood. The early cartographers displayed much creativity in mapping features and colors depicting distances, directions and images of human livelihood and environmental settings. We observe these distinguishing features on maps showing the layout of a village, a favorite hunting ground or fishing spot, sacred landscapes and distant places of enemies. Some early developments in the evolution of human cartography are depicted in **Figure 1.**
