“U.S. Geological Survey EDMAP­—Training the Next Generation of Geologic Mappers” is a four-page fact sheet created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Cooperative Mapping Program. The EDMAP program provides funding, which is matched by universities, to train undergraduates and graduate students in field-based geologic mapping. The purpose of this fact sheet is to raise awareness of the funding opportunity among students and college and university faculty.

The authors wanted to design a fact sheet that appealed to faculty and students alike. On the cover, the title is stenciled in Illustrator from a geologic map of Big Bend, Texas. The artwork, which wraps to the back page, uses vector silhouette art style. The setting is a newly opened fault site, where students utilize different tools, such as measuring tape and drones, to characterize the landscape—the idea is to showcase old methods and new technologies together to illustrate how students and faculty can bring different perspectives to the traditional field of geologic mapping, a decades-old practice. The silhouette artwork style, versus photographs, allows students to visualize themselves participating in field work.

Inside of the fact sheet, a published map showcases how a past EDMAP student informed a major infrastructure development in Connecticut. Quotes from past students, styled as an infographic, bring stories together visually with a map of the United States. The background of the inside pages is a geologic map that was edited in Photoshop to have one hue, which ties together the student experiences highlighted on these pages with the end product of the EDMAP program—a geologic map.

The back page of the fact sheet is styled to show students working in different sites, this time in photograph form. A field notebook that might be used to record data informs faculty how to apply to the EDMAP program.

The fact sheet is publicly available online and 2,000 copies were printed, distributed to various universities. The application period opens in September, so it is too soon to know if this fact sheet helped to increase participation in the EDMAP program.