9 replies to this topic

[nonie3234]

Here is a map I did for a VERY demanding client.
I am not so delighted with it myself, but he was very particular about every element.

I would be very grateful for any feedback and suggestions!

Attached Files

•  NewJersey_Nov07.jpg   1.3MB   149 downloads

[benbakelaar]

There is an error in the JPEG. By any chance did you have it in CMYK mode in Photoshop? I came across the same error yesterday. Apparently Photoshop has no problem saving/opening CMYK JPEG's, but web browsers only can see RGB JPEG's.

[nonie3234]

Oh - I had no idea! Yes, it is in CMYK. I made it in Illustrator.
Let me try again...
Thank you!

There is an error in the JPEG. By any chance did you have it in CMYK mode in Photoshop? I came across the same error yesterday. Apparently Photoshop has no problem saving/opening CMYK JPEG's, but web browsers only can see RGB JPEG's.

[nonie3234]

Better?

Oh - I had no idea! Yes, it is in CMYK. I made it in Illustrator.
Let me try again...
Thank you!

There is an error in the JPEG. By any chance did you have it in CMYK mode in Photoshop? I came across the same error yesterday. Apparently Photoshop has no problem saving/opening CMYK JPEG's, but web browsers only can see RGB JPEG's.

Attached Files

•  NewJersey_Nov07.jpg   935.18K   110 downloads

[MapMedia]

Strange brew, man.

Its a bad mix of high detail and low detail data. The customer polygons are your emphasis, so I would focus on them.
Do you need to show parks and urban (beige blocks in NY)? Eliminate transparency of customer polygons. Just trying to make suggestions on how to clean it up.
Maybe also remove lakes, and even try using a less detailed (small scale) water and state boundary datasets, so the boundary lines may occasionally line up with
customer polygons.

Good effort nonetheless and I feel your pain!

[nonie3234]

Yeah, the beige stuff was his idea - he wanted to see the neighboring franchises, so I needed to make them visible, but not prominent. I settled on beige after experimenting with other colors - gray, for instance. You can see (I hope) that each neighbor is a different shade of beige.

But yeah - peeling off the lakes and parks would make it way less busy, I'll try that.
I don't have any transparency on the customer polygons, but I do have the parks and lakes on and near them at a multiply transparency.
Maybe I should make the customer polygons not so pastel so they show up better next to the neighboring franchises?

Thank you!

Strange brew, man.

Its a bad mix of high detail and low detail data. The customer polygons are your emphasis, so I would focus on them.
Do you need to show parks and urban (beige blocks in NY)? Eliminate transparency of customer polygons. Just trying to make suggestions on how to clean it up.
Maybe also remove lakes, and even try using a less detailed (small scale) water and state boundary datasets, so the boundary lines may occasionally line up with
customer polygons.

Good effort nonetheless and I feel your pain!

[natcase]

Problematic at a root level:

You are using tints to describe water (blue), neighboring franchises (tan), parks (green), and subfranchises in your territory (every color including green and blue). The result is visual confusion. Also, labels do not relate stylistically to the areas they label.

You are not now "using" white except to mean "land area where there's no current franchise"

Consider:
- what is now white plus water as neutrals (tan and dull blue?) with about the same value. No shoreline or infill. Make the combination of these two as much of a "blank slate" as possible
- franchises in your territory as pinks, peaches and yellows, with a thin warm-red line and territory codes in the same warm red
- keep parks as transparent green
- neighboring territories as tints of purple
- highways in white, with smaller shields
- city names in black, lighter font

[nonie3234]

Oh - those are great ideas!
I really think making one territory orangy and the other purplish will do wonders for this map!

In fact, I did a similar thing for Connecticut - they LOVED it...
(See attached)

One thing, though - wouldn't black city names conflict too much with the black road labels?
(the cities are really important to my customers, the need to be prominent)

Thank you SO much!

Problematic at a root level:

You are using tints to describe water (blue), neighboring franchises (tan), parks (green), and subfranchises in your territory (every color including green and blue). The result is visual confusion. Also, labels do not relate stylistically to the areas they label.

You are not now "using" white except to mean "land area where there's no current franchise"

Consider:
- what is now white plus water as neutrals (tan and dull blue?) with about the same value. No shoreline or infill. Make the combination of these two as much of a "blank slate" as possible
- franchises in your territory as pinks, peaches and yellows, with a thin warm-red line and territory codes in the same warm red
- keep parks as transparent green
- neighboring territories as tints of purple
- highways in white, with smaller shields
- city names in black, lighter font

Attached Files

•  Connecticut_Nov07.jpg   1.28MB   72 downloads

[natcase]

Oh - those are great ideas!
I really think making one territory orangy and the other purplish will do wonders for this map!

In fact, I did a similar thing for Connecticut - they LOVED it...
(See attached)

One thing, though - wouldn't black city names conflict too much with the black road labels?
(the cities are really important to my customers, the need to be prominent)

Thank you SO much!

My point is to keep the city names from seeming like they label the subfranchise territories. If you have a green area with green type on top of it, the instinct is to assume the label attaches to the area. If you keep the franchise labels in the same color family as the areas they are labeling, then the relationship will be clearer... and likewise if you keep the town names away from that color range, the difference will be clearer.

By road labels, do you mean the highway shields? These do not generally read as type, but as point symbols. I wouldn't worry about them being the same color as town labels.

Finally, for close color variation (e.g. pick 5 purples), I've been finding playing with the "color guide" feature in Illustrator really useful for this kind of thing. It is useful in these cases to try and keep the value (lightness/darkness) pretty close. Otherwise you end up with some areas looking more prominent than others...

[nonie3234]

My point is to keep the city names from seeming like they label the subfranchise territories.

To my customers, (especially this guy) the city names kind of DO label the territories. This customer was very specific where the label should be - often ignoring where the city label placed geographically (center of the city polygon) over where the city center is perceived by the residents there.

By road labels, do you mean the highway shields? These do not generally read as type, but as point symbols. I wouldn't worry about them being the same color as town labels.

Yes, I didn't think of that...you're right.

Finally, for close color variation (e.g. pick 5 purples), I've been finding playing with the "color guide" feature in Illustrator really useful for this kind of thing. It is useful in these cases to try and keep the value (lightness/darkness) pretty close. Otherwise you end up with some areas looking more prominent than others...

Oh, cool! I didn't know about that...I'll check it out! I was just eyeballing it, which makes me cranky.

Thank you so much for all your advice - you've been very helpful!