Typography - Computer Cartography

Hello fellow GIS users! 

This weeks lab was a very fun lab, as it brought me back into my creative thinking mindset. With my current job I make maps all of the time, but more often then not, they are boring maps. The learning outcome for this lab was that us students would have the ability to define and insert essential map elements, label our map in accordance with general typographic guidelines, and making sure we employ proper type placement for different feature types (i.e., point, lines, and polygons) This lab allowed me to mess with different color customizations and font styles to make a map in my own creative style. 

When it came to making labels for my map, I made sure to use the appropriate font style for the feature type. For example, the river labels on my map are italicized because that is the what is established with typographic guidelines. I also had to edit my river labels to be placed in a better position on my map, as a good majority of the labels were offset in weird locations. To fix them, I converted my river labels to annotations, and used the move tool to place them in the location I wanted to place them. Next I used the edit vertices tool to then have the labels move along the curves of the river and not overlap with the river layer itself. I also used the annotation tool for the swamp labels on the map, as that was required by the lab. 

Once we completed the first part of the lab, we got to customize our map as long as we included all of the rivers that you now see on my map, all of the cities included on my map, and two large swamps that are included on my map. That being said here are the three customizations I added to make my map my own:

The first customization I chose to do involved the color scheme for the counties, swamps, and background. I chose these colors for the counties and swamp because they both merged well together and the color for the counties doesn’t really distract from the main point of the map being that it showcases Florida's rivers and swamps, as well as major cities. I decided to go with that sky blue background because the white background color it originally was, made the map very bright and was pulling the attention away from what the map was trying to showcase. The second customization I did was changing the symbology of the major Florida cities. It was important to showcase that these cities are major seats of county governments so that is why I went with ESRI’s government building symbol, because originally it was just a plane old flame orange dot. The third customization I did was choosing the font style for the two swamps that were included on the map. Knowing that we should go with a serif font for natural areas, I decided to go with the Georgia font style. One issue I had with the text while using this font was that the text was merging with the county lines, as a result of that, I added a halo to the annotation to make the text using this font easier to see.

Overall, I really enjoyed this lab and look forward to the next one. Check out my map below!