20 replies to this topic

[Hans van der Maarel]

This week we finished the new city map for Apeldoorn, just in time for the new year I've already shown the map design itself here some time ago, but I've added some more samples anyway... One other thing I'm quite pleased with is the overall design. We wanted something that stands out and I think we succeeded in that.

It's a 2-sided map, showing the city itself, along with the index, on the front. The back features an inset map of the city centre, an overview map of the municipality, and maps of the various smaller towns within the municipality.

Front:
 plattegrond_2008_sample1.jpg   1.29MB   191 downloads

Back:
 plattegrond_2008_sample4.jpg   1.01MB   128 downloads

Details:
 plattegrond_2008_sample2.jpg   1.63MB   143 downloads  plattegrond_2008_sample3.jpg   1.31MB   117 downloads

We tried to recreate the look and feel of 17th century city maps, that often featured oblique views of the city, or noteworthy buildings in the city. So building forth on that idea, we decided to add photos of noteworthy buildings and/or objects in the municipality. Clockwise from top left: the Royal Palace, City Hall, the museum steam train and the Radio Kootwijk buildings.

Would like to hear your comments

[mike]

very nice Hans. One thing that I did notice were the Index grid (or circle in this case) numbers were hiding features below it (streets, street names, city names [blue text]). It is very noticeable in the third attachment where "4" is partially hiding the city "Welgelegen". From what I can see in the other examples, the index numbers hide several street names. I guess you can't do much about partially blocking the street, but perhaps the labels could be moved around the index number with a leader line if necessary.

Other than that, i like the colors and the circular orientation of the map. I guess this city's sprawl really suits this type of layout.

[Rob]

Hans, that is very nicely done! great work. how come some of the grey buildings have shadows and others do not?

[Andrew]

Hi,

I agree with Mikes comments about the index labels hiding street names, but like he said there might not be much you can do about partially blocking street names.
I like the idea of placing a leader for the street names around the index number, but I was also wondering if you have experimented with making the background of the index numbers slightly transparent at all??? Or if that would be appropriate??
Other than that looks great, job well done.

Andrew

[nonie3234]

I love the little detail of the shadow under the overpasses! Nicely done, I would never have thought of that!
The round shape of the map is a brilliant idea - and it works nicely for the smaller maps on the back.

Your goal of making it look like an antique map was achieved, this really is artfully done!

[Hans van der Maarel]

Thanks for the comments!

Hans, that is very nicely done! great work. how come some of the grey buildings have shadows and others do not?

Grey (industrial) or brownish (regular) buildings with a shadow are 'special'. Outside the built-up areas, all building outlines are shown and the shadow (or rather, the same outline with a slight offset and darker color) is simply a trick to be able to distinguish special buildings.

[MapMedia]

Beautiful. Very Euro! I really like the clean design, icons, and colors.

I think the building shading is reserved for special sites that are also labeled, if I am not mistaken.

Please let us know how we can buy it too!

>> Were all of your data in digital databases, buildings, etc.?

[Hans van der Maarel]

Beautiful. Very Euro! I really like the clean design, icons, and colors.

I think the building shading is reserved for special sites that are also labeled, if I am not mistaken.

Please let us know how we can buy it too!

>> Were all of your data in digital databases, buildings, etc.?

Yes, any 'special' buidling ought to be labelled. This is the first one we're doing after a thorough re-thinking (and cleanup) of the special building status, so there might be some discrepancies.

All data was supplied digitally. Microstation DGN mostly, although they're in the process of moving to Arc. Pre-processing done with FME of course, styles assigned with MAPublisher.

Early next year they should be printed, I'll see if I can arrange something by that time.

[DaveB]

Cool map! The use of circles is effective for the insets and ties all the maps together and creates a distinctive look to the whole product. I like the photos in the corners, too.

As a non-Dutch speaker (my Dutch ancestors left the Netherlands back in the 1600's and they neglected to pass the language down through 15 generations ) it's intriguing to wander around the map and see placenames and words that I believe I can understand (is "bus garage" Dutch?). Then there are the other labels that sound interesting, such as Radio Kootwijk. Looks like a town or village on the map, but maybe "radio" has a different meaning in Dutch than it does in English?

Excellent work, Hans!

[frax]

Hans - I'd be curious if you have any thoughs on the circular index grid - was that something that you decided to do for this map, or following some earlier practice, or an established separation.

Not that I would have a big problem using that, and it provides some hints on the distance from the centre that gives added value, but I could see it possibly being a tad trickier compared to the usual rectangular grid - for the average user.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Hans - I'd be curious if you have any thoughs on the circular index grid - was that something that you decided to do for this map, or following some earlier practice, or an established separation.

Not that I would have a big problem using that, and it provides some hints on the distance from the centre that gives added value, but I could see it possibly being a tad trickier compared to the usual rectangular grid - for the average user.

The circular grid was a decision I made. Since I didn't think it'd make much sense to have a rectangular grid on a circular map, I decided to go with it. An added benefit is that the grid cells (sectors) get smaller as the density of labels increases. Yes, it would be a bit trickier than a rectangular grid, but I don't think that's much of a problem (we'll find out when these will be printed and used...)

Dave,

'Radio Kootwijk' is a former long-range radio transmitter, used to keep in touch with the colonies. It's the main building (seen on the lower left photo on the front), nicknamed "The Cathedral" (more photos here) and a group of houses where the employees used to live. Currently no longer in use, but it's an interesting site. Quite odd, because it's in a middle of nowhere.

"Bus garage" pretty much means what you'd expect it to mean. There's a lot of similarities between the northern European languages.

[ELeFevre]

Nice map Hans. My only comment: The perspective of the image at the top-right on the front of the map strikes me as somewhat inconsistent compared to the other three images.

Oh, the circular index is really nice touch and seems to work well with the shape and feature concentration of the city. I like how as you get closer to the city center the pies get smaller making it easier to locate features in denser areas. very cool.

Nice work.

[Jean-Louis]

Yes! very cool and original design, Hans. I always realized the effectiveness shadowed intersections in 3-d designs but applying it as you did was a stroke of inspiration.
I especially like the photos around the circle. One comment is that I find the one on the upper right (radio bldg?) is distractingly more distorted the others. For me, it breaks the flow of the circle by pulling the eye towards its thinning vanishing point rather than escorting it around the map. I would suggest a shape that continues the row of houses.
Congratulations

[Hans van der Maarel]

Yes! very cool and original design, Hans. I always realized the effectiveness shadowed intersections in 3-d designs but applying it as you did was a stroke of inspiration.

Thanks It's a bit of a labor-intensive way to do it, but the result is pretty nice indeed.

I especially like the photos around the circle. One comment is that I find the one on the upper right (radio bldg?) is distractingly more distorted the others. For me, it breaks the flow of the circle by pulling the eye towards its thinning vanishing point rather than escorting it around the map. I would suggest a shape that continues the row of houses.
Congratulations

The top-right building is the city hall. The original photo was taken at almost ground level and at a very sharp angle. Unfortunately, that (or a *very* wide angle lens) is the only way to get the entire building in one shot. We were kinda limited on time and had hardly any opportunity to take new photos (only bottom left was taken especially for this map, the other three were stock images), as the weather was pretty bad ever since we got this idea. I would have preferred to not show the entire face, but rather the tower and a small part of the adjoining building face in a much less distorted way, but we decided to do it this way. I agree, it's the weakest of the photos (especially if you consider that the bottom two are not distorted at all).

[Jean-Louis]

It's a bit of a labor-intensive way to do it, but the result is pretty nice indeed.

Do you know of results that stand out that are not labor-intensive?