Map chaps: Lawrence Zempel and Graham Marriott designed an interactive guide to downtown L.A., adding to their cartographic repertoire.

The world of architectural mapmaking is an obscure one. So obscure that Lawrence Zempel and Graham Marriott knew each other professionally for more than 20 years before realizing they both were designing maps for the same set of high-end real estate clients in downtown L.A.

"We basically had the entire market between us," said Zempel, a graphic artist whose clients included Jones Lang LaSalle, the London-based real estate money manager. "We knew we had a business on our hands when several clients said they had their own mapmaker and another client would insist they had their own--and it was always the two of us."

Zempel has a design firm and has training in architecture, while Marriott was a former real estate executive and appraiser. They finally got together five years ago to form Cartifact LLC.

In the next few weeks, the company will introduce its first interactive online map--commissioned by the downtown L.A. Business Improvement District--that will allow Web users to click on as many as 400 different buildings to access photographs, leases and contact information for the pertinent address.

The BID is positioning its site as a portal for real estate information, Marriott said.

The pair started by working out of their garages. Two years later, they moved into a small office in Promenade Towers, a residential apartment complex where many USC students live.

They were actually working on a map of New York's World Trade Center when 9/11 hit. "We were watching television and we knew floor by floor who was located in which buildings," Marriott said.

'Golden eggs'

Cartifact now holds copyrights on 3,000 maps it has created (including a map of Palm Springs that highlights every golf course) and of Universal Studios' planned theme park in Malaysia.

"It's a goose that lays golden eggs," said Zempel, noting that while it may take 12 to 16 hours to design a new map, the company earns the same price selling each map over and over.

At first, Zempel and Marriott took the approach of most graphic designers: charging different prices for each client based on the hours needed to complete a project. But they ran into trouble getting invoices out.

PROFILE

Cartifact LLC

Year Founded: 1999

Core Business: Mapmaking

Revenues in 2002: $360,000

Revenues in 2003: $650,000

Employees in 2002: 4

Employees in 2003: 4

Goal: Expand beyond real estate specialty and bolster interactive offerings

Driving Force: The need for detailed maps and information involved in high-end real estate transactions

"We found it took longer to figure out how much time we spent on each map than it took actually doing the map itself," Marriott said. "Plus, if you charge different amounts for different items, people often will question the charges whereas no one questions a set price."

To simplify bookkeeping, they came up with a one-page price list. A typical location map costs $500. A smaller inset map runs $350. Putting a corporate logo on the map is $2,500. Rush orders and printing are extras. Interactive mapping services are priced separately depending on the number of point-and-click links and other items.

The pair recently began discussing a potential investment with venture capitalists in order to expand the business beyond real estate, and to add to its interactive capabilities. "Our fear is getting too busy before we're ready for it," Marriott said.

Cartifact now chums out 40 to 50 maps a week. The maps are traced by hand using both Geographical Information System (GIS) data and satellite imagery that allows the mapmakers to fill in background terrain.

Occasionally Zempel will take to the streets to photograph a missing detail, such as a freeway onramp. More often, the mapmakers employ a common trick of cartography--graphic license--to fill in unknown areas. Streets drawn on a Cartifact map tend to be much larger by scale than in a Thomas Bros. guide because names and buildings have to be large and legible.

One of their trademarks is color-coded buildings so real estate brokers can quickly identify other commercial buildings or retail locations in the same area.

Though the interactive maps are likely to become a fast-growing segment of their business, Cartifact still primarily sells printed maps to the real estate industry.

The biggest clients include CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield, as well as Bank of America, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., Deutsche Bank, and Merrill Lynch & Co.

The maps are included in prospectuses to sell commercial mortgage-backed securities.

"They have an extensive library of maps, particularly detailed maps that outline everything from apartments to libraries to restaurants," said Jason Roberts, senior presentation coordinator at Secured Capital Corp, a Los Angeles real estate investment bank that has purchased maps for investment packages of Library Tower, Arco Plaza and Beverly Connection.

The company's maps are also sold at Rand McNally and Thomas Bros. retail stores and Marriott expects sales to double this year to over $1 million. "The two things that anyone looks at in a prospectus are the bottom line and the maps," he said.