ABOUT CREATIVE FORCE MAPS

The Early Years of Creative Force, Inc.

It began with a six-year-old Minnesota girl named Jolan, in the back seat of the car firmly proclaiming, “Daddy, I don’t know where we are—please can you stop at the next gas station to get a map so I can see where we are?”

Jolan met her future husband, Bradley, in college, got married in 1985, and together they started Creative Force in 1987.

In 1988, we founded “Desktop Mapping” with Apple Computer, Inc. and Adobe Systems, Inc. (Adobe Illustrator was just one year old when we began our adventure.)

Apple Computer’s advertising strategy in the mid 1980’s was “The Power to Be Your Best,” designed to compete against IBM’s stranglehold on business computing. The Mac’s visual interface and “What You See is What You Get” printing would revolutionize how companies and governments analyzed data.

First came “Desktop Publishing” and then “Desktop Mapping” in 1988. It was designed to showcase the Macintosh as the personal computer for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital cartography.

We partnered with Apple and Adobe to bring GIS to the desktop. You no longer needed a Unix workstation or mainframe requiring substantial investment and training. Mapping became affordable and feasible for smaller local governments and utilities. And these organizations needed help to create their maps and digitize existing paper maps.

The Nightmare of 911

Very early Wednesday morning, on September 12, 2001, we were called by the office of the President of CNBC. We were tasked to create the only “official” map—to be televised worldwide—to strategically guide the surviving workforce back to the Financial District on Monday, September 17^th, 2001—less than a week after the attack!

We were authorized by the Mayor of New York City, the Governor of the State of New York, and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Talk about the “Red, White & Blue,” we all cried and then dove into the many maps that would require revisions with the speed and accuracy that only war can demand.

Of course, everything about the project was urgent, fragmented, and tempered with a seething rage to eradicate the devils who were responsible.

The landmarks had changed; debris lay everywhere, from the size of a grain of sand to a chunk of a multi-story building. Streets were closed, and streets were opened without obvious reason or notification, which shocked the control center. Every form of transportation, from trains, buses, motorcycles, and bicycles, had its routes crumble. We share this story for you to understand the passion, competence, and heart of Jolan Falk and her team.

The Reality of Movies and Television

Something you’ve probably never thought about is the number of maps you see in television and film. Studios must purchase the copyright or license for every map you view on screen

When it comes to TV/Film map purchases, it’s usually a set director, prop master, graphic designer, or in-house art department that requests the maps.

Sometimes we are sent pages from a script and are told, “You’re going to have to make this map up. Can you add snow-covered mountains on the horizon with a raging white-water creek next to the road?” It’s quite exciting for all of us to step into a fantasy project where anything is possible within the confines of a script.

Here is a list of a few of our Television/Movie clients.

• Our number one favorite is, Madame Secretary which ran for 6 seasons. We created maps for many episodes; most were international, and a few were historical.

• The CSI Franchise. We worked with all five shows, beginning in 2000 to the final “That’s a wrap” in 2024.

• Our current favorite still in production, Only Murders In The Building with Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short, is in production of its sixth season.

• Bullet Train Movie with Brad Pitt.

• NCIS

• Grey’s Anatomy (23 seasons)

• 911 (Too ironic and so painful).

• FBI Most Wanted

• Disclosure Day written and directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2026.

• Baywatch (2026 reboot).

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic created an overnight demand for LARGE wall maps for Creative Force. For one thing, customers needed multiple copies of maps for their remote offices. And it was no longer tolerated to have someone standing over you with coffee breath looking at a map on your laptop. So, a map on the wall six feet away became mandatory. And the bigger the map, the better! COVID’s impact is still powerful today. More than likely, no one is ever going to want to breathe down your neck to see the map on your laptop again.

Parks and Wildlife

Some of our favorite projects involve combining shaded relief, elevation contours, and detailed trails and backroads to produce maps for outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation.

For the past eight years, we’ve worked with Global Conservation, they are the only international nature conservation group whose sole mission is the direct protection of endangered national parks and indigenous territories in developing countries. They currently have 44 projects around the world. Creative Force’s maps are featured on their website and included in their book Saving the New Wild.

We remain Silicon Valley legends—although we infrequently operated from there. We are legends because we’ve been doing nearly the same thing for the last 40 years. And we are still using the original proprietary software we created that differentiates us from all the rest. Creative Force has never owned a computer other than an Apple computer.

THE PEOPLE YOU ARE LIKELY TO BUMP INTO

Jolan Falk

Founder & Director of Custom Maps

Jolan is pronounced [Joe-Lon]. She was named after her dad’s college (French) girlfriend. Jolan’s mom really liked the name and thought it would be fun to give her daughter a name that was impossible to remember or pronounce.

For Jolan’s high school graduation gift, her dad took her to Europe for a four-week-long, quite extensive tour. Jolan navigated while her dad drove across ten countries. The Michelin™ maps unfolded to be larger than the rental car.

When the Mac came out in 1984, Jolan was one of the first to get one, thanks to her uncle’s computer store.

In 1990, Adobe Illustrator™ had just one layer, and Jolan created the first geo-referenced world map, for the retail mass market, on a Mac. She then trained corporate Apple and Adobe sales managers in the method that they promoted to the publishing and media industries, and corporate art departments. When the New York Times, ABC News, and National Geographic became first adopters, Creative Force rapidly developed into a preeminent custom map and consulting company.

Jolan’s love of people is contagious, and on every occasion she can, she takes the phone calls of new prospects. The company has been constructed so we can move like lightning on quotations and deliveries, even on the most hectic days.

Jolan is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi selector, keeper and wrangler. For over a quarter of a century, the Falks have had three Corgis: Emma, Viggo, and now a two-year-old named Bennett. If you ever hear what sounds like a bark on a phone call with us, it is Bennett!

Somehow, we humans always notice when someone is doing exactly what they were born to do. And one of these is the person who founded Creative Force Maps. She answers to “The Map Lady.”

Bradley Folk

Founder

Bradley has journaled daily since he was 10 years old. He is an experienced writer and witness to everything and everyone around him; this includes business opportunities.

Bradley received his first ghostwriting Memoir project while in college—from his favorite professor, who was retiring.

While in college, Bradley had an idea that literally jumped into his back pocket. It was the early 1980s and “advertising specialties” were everywhere—pens, mugs, hats, T-shirts, umbrellas, and beach towels—that would brandish a company logo or message to sales prospects.

The invention was a double fold of leather to separate cash, cards, and receipts. The general response was instant enthusiasm as prospects emptied their wallet or purse and began using the product. We were not Madison Avenue, which allowed the product to name itself, “Credit Card & Cash Carrier.” So, we created Royal Craft, Inc. in Minnesota, then later, moved the company to Tampa, Florida.

By the time they graduated college, they owned three businesses. (To this day, Jolan and Bradley have never received a W-2 from any business but their own businesses.)

Bradley has personally and relentlessly curated a collection of over 5,000 antiquarian books and maps that has received considerable attention from book/map lovers and collectors. For decades, it has been a rewarding side business. Over one third of the books are from the 1800s, and his passion is both fiction and nonfiction before the automobile was invented.

Bradley has traveled several times to Europe to import warmblood sport horses, specializing in Hanoverians with show jumping bloodlines. He founded Falk Hanoverians Inc. as a Florida Corporation.

Dwight Cox

Head Cartographer & New Technology

Dwight has a unique skill as an escape artist who doesn’t just think outside the box but claims to have burned that !@#$% thing a long time ago. (Boxes are for cats, he prefers dogs) He is our problem solver and refuses to see limitations, only challenges. He secretly thinks a zombie apocalypse is just an opportunity to improve our character through adversity.

Dwight will celebrate his 28th year with us in November. He has forever changed our corporate culture and its presentation to the world: which is who we are. His specialties are GIS, map design, satellite imagery interpretation, and the art of digital shaded relief.

Christina Silva

Head Graphic Designer & Artistic Development

Christina says she was born with a crayon in her hand. We believe her because she can barely communicate without a pen, pencil or stylus in her hand, and something to draw upon.

Christina brings not only her artistic talents, but also hands-on experience with the large-format print industry, transforming vector files to a prominent place on a client’s wall. Her specialty is the maps that lean more heavily towards art, than science.

Since turning 18, Christina has marked every major event in her life with a skydive. Her last dive was with her fiancée. They were married the next day.