This exegesis presents a selection of my published work of the last twenty years as original research into the uses of mapping in design practice and criticism. The argument springs from three understandings of the term ‘mapping’: as a practical term, denoting the practice of map-­‐making and visualisation, as a relational term, describing the discourse-­‐driven approach to design writing and criticism advocated here, and as a reflexive term, describing a process of situated self-­‐reflection. While a substantial part of my work published since the book Else/Where: Mapping (Abrams and Hall, 2006) covers mapping and visualisation outcomes as its subject matter, my interest in mapping as a research method extends the scope beyond things that look like diagrams and maps. Of particular relevance is the use of mapping to denote the designerly methods of framing, selecting, connecting and arranging causal relationships in the service of uncovering new possibilities. When informed by psychogeographic traditions, the map-­‐maker does not pretend to detached omniscience, but is implicated the relational structure developed. Each mapping, whether its output is visual or textual, is a formative iteration. In this sense, this exegesis is also a mapping of my critical development, tracing the passage of design writing from the reporting methods learned on trade magazines to more critical methods of design research and analysis.