turkowcfgeog
..understanding the world one map at a time..
Spotted Owl Habitat: Okanogan County, Washington
This was my final map for GIS I, where I made a theoretical map based on the habitat of the spotted owl. I wished to show the encroaching of the barred owl through this map. Utilizing data on typical habitats of these owls, I constructed this map based on vegetation type, major toads, suburban and urban areas and proximity to rivers.
Milwaukee’s North Avenue: A Racialized Landscape
Student Research Day Poster 2012 – Human Geography & History Research
Chloropleth Map: Redux
This map was in serious need of fixing! The most blaring problem was the spelling error of ancestOry, instead of ancestry. After fixing that, I went on to increase the size of all of text, thus increasing legibility. Then I changed the color of the neatline fill, green didn’t seem to allow the purple and blue to jump off of the page as I would have liked. I opted for a more contrasting hue that will set the chloropleth maps apart from the ground. Another aspect I wanted to change in the map were inefficient legends. I took my time to fix all four legends with correct values but also reordering. Before I had them in the largest to smallest order-didn’t really make sense so I switched them so that the smallest class would be first. That solved the visual hierarchy problems in the map. I additionally removed the individual neatlines from the maps because it created a clustered appearance and with the removal it creates a much more open, simple lay out increasing the overall clarity.
Hometown Map: Redux
One of the maps I chose to tweak and fix was my hometown reference map. I wasn’t pleased with the legend, so I increased the size of the symbols and text. The next thing I did was add a second neat line around the whole map and legend, making it much more clear in my mind. I wish I would have saved the scale of the basemap, because I don’t believe this scale is truly useful for people to comprehend. However, I believe the legend is more legible now, the overall map has better clarity and figure ground from the second neat line.
South America: Ten Projections Map
South America: Ten Projection Map, a photo by turkowcf on Flickr.
This exercise was aimed at understanding and learning the basics of map projections, and how they distort area, shape, and other aspects of maps. We included 10 different map projections and in Illustrator laid them over each other to show how different South America can look. After we had to include a legend with the basics of ten important map projections, I kind of failed at the fonts looking squished and small. The importance is the political and social implications associated with projections. Distortion can be used to inflate the appearance and therefore importance of a certain nation. As geographers we must keep in mind projections at all times, and this exercise helped to open the door to that thinking.
Reference Map: Africa
The first exercise was creating a reference map of Africa utilizing the five essentials of map design to create an aesthetic pleasing map in Illustrator. Understanding all the tools and layers took a bit of time, but eventually this came to be one of my favorite exercises. I started with picking out colors for the different nations, I wanted them to be bright but not too neon or distracting. Then I had to solve the problem of the graticule, I eventually decreased the opacity of the graticule behind the continent to give the appearance of latitude and longitude around, but not over the nations-as not to distract from the labeling. Another important color choice was the water color, the ocean needed to be light, again not too dark and distracting, and the rivers had to be a little darker in order to stand against the brighter political colors. Font was another choice, I wanted something bold especially the title, I like the neutral shade of surrounding countries against the large ‘Africa’. The biggest challenge by far was labeling and figuring out different sizes, angles, abbreviations, and placement. It took majority of my time to label countries, rivers and physical features but by the end I felt like I grasped Illustrator and cartography a hell of a lot better!
turkowcfgeog 