Expanding the Sémiologie Graphique for contemporary cartography, some ideas from visual semiotics, art history and design

ABSTRACT

In this article, we describe some ideas based on Bertin’s Sémiologie Graphique with a focus on extending it for aesthetic quality issues in cartography. We consider research in semiotics, aesthetics, and graphic design, with some fruitful results about the use of color or composition. We present several tools, oriented toward a pedagogical use and accessibility, helping to examine the color composition of an expressing image or to create meaningful gradients. While Bertin’s concepts still remain relevant and efficient, specific ideas can be developed further, to adapt to current media and gain from scientific advances from related disciplines.

KEYWORDS:

• Aesthetics
• color
• composition
• Sémiologie Graphique
• Bertin
• Bertin@50

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.