[Cobalt Sages Creations] Continental Map Request

[Deviston]

Greetins’!
I’m new. Welcome New. Thanks, appreciate it. I’m also here to request some folks to pitch me a quote for a map I’m looking to have designed. Hello Also Here To…. Okay, that’s enough, jokes are not my main skill as you can tell. However, I find myself good at annoying people, coming up with nifty ideas, and above all working as a project manager (PM) for stuff. In this specific instance I’m appearing as a PM for a minor RPG publishing company who wants to have a map made for their world. Perhaps I’m also co-owner, but whatevs. Not important really.
What IS important, is I’ve spent a little time learning some about cartography and have come to learn from my learnings that I haven’t learned enough to apply learning to developing a map. But uh, I have learned enough to recognize that I’d be better off hiring a professional! That’s where you fine, artistic, visionary individuals come in.
The project consists of a multiphase process, the first of which is the design of a continent. Following phases depend on the final version of the continent and thus aren’t exceptionally relevant to this post.

Be aware this is my first attempt to work her eon these forums and working with cartographers, but not with artists in general. There may be some lingo I’m not up on, so feel free to comment accordingly on that or anything else that seem untoward.

[Paid] Commission

Subject

• Fantasy setting
• Magical storms randomly appear in the world frequently, thus few settlements
• Not quite Arrakis, but still a desert-like planet, heat increase from Earth norm worldwide (fewer bodies of water, desert-ish etc)
• 10-15 floating islands that drift in a predetermined orbit
• Some details are required, some details are not set in stone, large opportunity for world building (which would be a part of the gig)
• Other fantasy terrain (spiral shaped landforms, reverse gravity zone that allows for oddly shaped landforms to exist, etc)
• Continent is about 2500 miles long from east to west
• I attached a few working concepts I developed

Style

• Icons (NOT Tolkienien icons) showing terrain instead of real textures
• One map for monsoon season (2-3 months of the year)
• One map for dry season (rest of the year)
• One map for floating island orbits and “chained down” floating island shards that, when released, zoom back to their original island
• Colored map, but potentially in that sepia type tone some maps are in, professional opinion will likely play a part in one way or the other

Quality & Size

• Professional
• Required for web/PDF insertion
• Dimensions of map: ? inches by ? inches
• Raster / Vector (uncertain which is best for this, assuming raster)

Time Constraints
The project will start in roughly a month. When we settle on a cartographer, we will discuss a timeframe that works for both parties.
Deadline flexible (would prefer no greater than two months)

Copyright
Artist will be credited with links to their portfolio both in product (where applicable) and on our website
I would like:

• Copyright of the map
• Merch rights
• Original source files
• Ability to edit to fit a style choice, color change, label change, things like that
• I will have the right to use the image for commercial purposes, the artist will have the right to exhibit the image as part of his portfolio but not to exploit it for commercial gain.

Please itemize your quote such that we can ala carte remove/keep items when negotiating

General notes of gig:

• Must sign NDA to conduct work
• Payment schedule to be agreed upon prior to begin (we are flexible and are willing to pay percentage upfront)
• Willing to pay for appropriate fonts if found and the cartographer doesn’t own them, this extends to other potential resources to be agreed upon between us and the cartographer on a case by case scenario

Requirements of cartographer:

• Ability to provide worldbuilding suggestions
• Ability to work with our authors to co-develop ideas and concepts

Expectations of pitch:

• Estimation of cost for mapwork
• Estimation of cost for collaboration time (sometimes referred to as consultation fees)

Contact Details

deviston--at--cobaltsages.com
(remove the -- and convert "at" to @)