Essential Map Elements, Typography and Labeling

Module 3 – Typography

 On this assignment, we were asked to use the geodatabase (gdb) for Florida from module 2 and create a map of Marathon area of the Florida Keys in ArcGIS 10.3. To get the area to fit best you should change the layout to landscape.  Where you place a locator, I inserted a map of the Florida Keys, I also added a scale bar and the North arrow. Once that was done you exported the map as an AI file extension (Adobe Illustrator).

  As part of this assignment you had to add certain features like aerial feature, such as islands found in the keys;  hydrographic feature, Florida Bay, point features, State parks and country clubs.  You also had to label all the features. You were asked to follow some specific guidelines for all features labeling such as the placement of text for aerial feature. If the text could fit in the land area without touching the boundaries, perfect.  If not, you placed the text outside the area being careful not to touch the boundaries.   For the hydrographic feature you could used italic font and have it follow the diagonal and curve of the water body if any. For point features the text had to be placed either horizontally aligned to the right, center or left of the feature or you could use a leader line. The leader line could only be 0.25pts thick and could not touch the text or the feature.  You were also asked to use only two font styles serif and sand serif.  This was a good assignment and very interesting and informative. I learned a lot and I plan to apply what I learned to the maps I do at work.

Introduction to Graphic Design with Adobe Illustrator.

Module 2 – Introduction to Graphic Design with Adobe Illustrator.

For this assignment we were given a scenario to create a basic Florida map for a children’s encyclopedia. The map was first created in ArcGIS 10.3. You had to bring in elements from geodatabase (gdb), the counties, capital, the major cities and surface waters.  Then you added the legend, north arrow and scale bar.  Once that was done you exported the map as an AI file extension (Adobe Illustrator).

After opening the file in Illustrator, your first task is to organize your layers and create new layers to help you keep organized.  The one thing you must do is to move all the scale bar segments to the geographic content layer, if not when you resize the layer for any reason the scale bar will not resize to the correct proportion.   Then you need to decide how you want your map to look: what colors, text style and size, placement of the legend, scale bar, and north arrow.  We were also asked to change the symbol style of the capital and major cities using a script file which made the changes much easier to do.  As part of the map you were asked to show some of the state symbols like the state’s flag, the state’s flower, state’s animal and so on. For my map I used the drop shadow as an effect to help bring attention to the symbols.

Introduction to Cartography and Map Design Principles

Week 1 lecture was an Introduction to Cartography and Map Design Principles. We learned some of the history of map making over time, as well as some of the key principles.  We were given twenty Tufteisms and how they should apply to maps. They assignment consisted of choosing one example of a well-designed map and one example of a poorly-designed map and apply the Tufteisms to each map.

  1.       Example of a Well-Designed Map

      This map is a good example of a well-designed map. This map is straight forward and easy to understand. The layout is used effectively (Commandment 5 – Tufteism 19) along with its labels, color boundaries zones (Commandment 3 – Tufteisms 7 & 8). Over all this map has no map crap. (Commandment 4 – Tufteisms 11, 14, 15, 16, and 18).  I liked this map from the beginning because you where able to get information from it right away. 

        2.    Example of a Poorly-Designed Map

1.       This map is a very good example of a poorly-designed map. I believe it’s a map for tourists to use but how in the world someone can use this map to get around is hard to imagine.  This map is in need of a street layout with labels showing street names. Symbols showing the most important points of interest. (Commandment 3 –Tuftesims 7 & 8).  The map shows a handwritten scale and north arrow, there is no way to know if they correct (Commandment 2 –Tuftesims  5, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 13). This map fails to have any kind of layout to be considered a map of any kind for people to use.