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neck of the woods | prof ile

Q – HOW DID THE NAME RAVEN MAPS COMING
INTO BEING?
STUART – Raven was a convergence of two considerations:
The Northwest Coast cultural tradition of the Raven as the crea-
tor of the world and Ravens viewing the earth from an aerial view.

Q – HOW WERE YOU INSPIRED TO CREATE LARGE MAP
PRINTS?
STUART – It was an accident, dumb luck. I was wandering around
the University of Oregon campus, getting out of the house while my
wife studied for law school exams. It was dead week; everything was
locked up, and I needed a bathroom. Finally, I found an open building,
took a wrong turn and there’s this plaster of Paris raised relief map of
Oregon about six feet by nine feet on the wall. I was entranced. It had
the impact of the Ferry Building map, from my childhood. I enrolled
as a graduate student in geography. The department got a grant to do a
state atlas of Oregon. I had some background in graphic arts, so I got a
job working on the atlas. I got more and more involved in map design,
showing what was fascinating about the earth’s geography. I stumbled
into a career that suited me. It was a wonderful coincidence.

MICHAEL – As Raven Maps was being put together, I was work-
ing for another company in sales. Raven produced a series of map
posters, and in my spare time I’d take them to various college cam-
puses and pitch them. Stuart had started the first of the western state
maps, which were printed in 1987. We sent out promo copies, and in
November of 1987, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a big story about
our California map. We’d struck gold and have never looked back.

Q - DO YOU DESIGN RAVEN MAPS FOR ART OR FOR
PEOPLE TO FIND DIRECTION?

STUART - As Art! But it’s got to be accurate. Raven Maps are not
roadmaps. A good roadmap is not going to show you an awful lot more
than the roads and the names of places. We went the other way. I was
interested in showing landforms, the beauty of the world that most
maps don’t focus on. People like that.

Michael - Stuart once described our maps as the merging of truth and
beauty. It describes what we do. Our biggest market is individuals who
want maps hung in their home or business. To be put on the wall, it has
to be beautiful.

Q – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SAID THAT “THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL MAPS IN THE WORLD ARE MADE BY RAVEN
MAPS.”

STUART - It’s tough to beat a quote like that.

MICHAEL - That article commented on our map called One World,
“It is stunningly beautiful.”

42 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | summer 2020