The greatest map I can remember seeing was from my childhood, a National Geographic map of the Mongol Empire. I was mesmerized by that single image telling a story involving the lives of millions told over hundreds of years.
Here's a 2 second google examples of: I like this map, I hate this map. Now, maps have different purposes, and so it can be unfair to sometimes pick two different maps and critique them in comparison, but, we're going to do that anyway. Two maps of North Carolina.
The first has a crisp, clean design. Is elegant and imparts the information is is trying to relay. It's simple, but has high accuracy. It's easy to read, and the colors are well chosen.
The second is just... ugh... First of all, looking at it for just a few seconds I noticed they spelled at least one city incorrectly. It's just ugly. why is NC at an angle? There is little design intent. Now, to be fair, it does convey information (but I already know some of it is wrong), and so from that standpoint you can argue that it's a fine map. But we're talking about the art of cartography, and at the end of the day, I'd argue it's is an art form, and design is a key component. And in this map's case, it is just a horrid map that I don't want to even look at.
As a tip I learned in school: don't ever put a north arrow on a map, unless it absolutely needs it.
National Geographic almost always has great maps. They have some amazing cartographers working for them. I love their stuff.
The greatest map I can remember seeing was from my childhood, a National Geographic map of the Mongol Empire. I was mesmerized by that single image telling a story involving the lives of millions told over hundreds of years.