This sample application shows how you can do your own custom drawing on the map using the power of GDI+.  For example in the map below look at how the points that represent the city have a green gradient look.  To accomplish this we used the GDI+ PathGradientBrush to render the point with a green .01 gradient fall off. 

Map Suite allows you to add your own custom Area, Text and Point symbols to the symbolrenderers and labelrenderers collections.  Then once the map begins to render it calls back to CustomDraw event on the custom symbol where you can specify any custom drawing code.  This allows for extreme flexibility in the rendering of your map.

Be sure to zoom into one of the labels to see the custom gradient effect from Black to Gray, this was implemented using a custom text symbol.