9 replies to this topic

[DefenS]

Hello,

This will be somewhat of an introduction for me as well as a posting of one of my first maps for critique.

My name is Brian Geer, am a Geography student at California State East Bay[CSUEB] and a resident of Antioch, CA. I am currently enrolled in Intro to GIS at, but I have been working as an intern in the GIS department for Contra Costa County in Martinez, CA beginning late summer ’07.

My most enjoyable classes have been the cartography series at my school. I have basically fallen, head over heels, for cartography. Anyhow, attached are my final for GIS class, the Contra Costa Count Skateparks map (this involves hypothetical criteria that I basically had to ‘make up’ for class) and a cartogram I recently finished for a project in my cartography class. I used only ESRI software for the skatepark map and only Illustrator for the cartogram.

Any suggestions, feedback?

Attached Files

•  greerB_4600final.pdf   489.36K   275 downloads
•  Greer_Lab5.pdf   334.03K   191 downloads

[Hans van der Maarel]

You're using fonts for symbols on the skate park map, but not all of them (highway shields notably) made it to the PDF.

Aside from that, I'm not too sure about the color scheme. Pink is not a color I would associate with skaters. Granted, you're using it for cities without skateparks, but still...

[ELeFevre]

Hey Brian,
Cool map idea. My only suggestion is to try and capture the energy of skateboarding through color, fonts, pictures, et cetera. You might as well have fun with this thing. How about adding in skate shop locations as well?

[Casey Greene]

Hey Brian,

I agree with Erin, you could make it more dope-skateboard-esque-culture like. You are making a statement with the map...So, make it scream (although i know it can be frustrating to work creatively with ESRI's products).

If you really want that A+, have a local sign shop print out a board size vinyl sticker of the map, and place it on the back of your deck. Then turn it in, skateboard and all, and watch the look on your professor's face.

-Casey Greene
(cbgreene@yahoo)

[DefenS]

You're using fonts for symbols on the skate park map, but not all of them (highway shields notably) made it to the PDF.

Aside from that, I'm not too sure about the color scheme. Pink is not a color I would associate with skaters. Granted, you're using it for cities without skateparks, but still...

what exactly do you mean, fonts for symbols. i should take away the actual number in the highway badge?

[François Goulet]

what exactly do you mean, fonts for symbols. i should take away the actual number in the highway badge?

If I understand Hans correctly, he means that ESRI's symboles are in fact fonts. Once exported, it is possible that those font aren't embedded or you can't seem them on computer where those fonts aren't installed.

The best way to be assure that all your symbols appear on the map is to create outlines in Illustrator so they will be vector instead.

The Skater Schools symbol is somewhat lost in the background. A former teacher of mine give me a tip for this is to, if possible, of course, to use cold colors for the background and hot colors for the icons so they are most evident on the map. It's not always possible, but it helps me often

Are you legend items taken directly from the map? The Park/Recreation area have a dark green outline, but it's not like this on the map...

[MapMedia]

Hey Brian! Welcome to the site and thanks for jumping into the map gallery.

Excellent start on your maps.

Here are my thoughts:

Skatepark map: Think about choosing symbology (polygon or symbol etc.) for the scale of the map. I would replace the polygons of the skateparks with a skatepark logo (is there another symbol you could create/find that looks like a concrete/caged skatepark versus just a skateboard?).
Decent colors. Tune up the map so it the message jumps right out at you - I think increasing the size of the skatepark symbols would be a good start, making these very prominent.

China map: very cool design. How did you create the cartogram? My first thought was that it was a map of China's provinces and a schematic of an office building - interesting combo, I wanted to read more, so it has that going for it.

[DaveB]

If I understand Hans correctly, he means that ESRI's symboles are in fact fonts. Once exported, it is possible that those font aren't embedded or you can't seem them on computer where those fonts aren't installed.

The best way to be assure that all your symbols appear on the map is to create outlines in Illustrator so they will be vector instead.

You could also try embedding the fonts and/or converting marker symbols to polygons when exporting the map to pdf from ArcMap.

[DefenS]

thanks for all the comments!

yeah, not sure what to say about the symbols. it is somewhat of a challenge to make a map look good using only acrMap...

i actually made the skatepark symbol piece by piece, it is supposed to be a skateboard, using the symbol GUI by first creating a new symbol using the style manager. I did this a very 'hokey' way by using 6 different pieces and moving them around, and changing their sizes to best resemble the profile of a skateboard. I agree that I should have used illusrtator and made a better symbol.

to be quite honest, I did the skatepark map in a few hours at work, where we do not have access to illustrator. the due date crept up on me! I already turned the map in, did a little presentation on it. my teacher grabbed me as i was leaving class and said it was a nice map and that i would do good in GIS, as you may imagine, that made my day.

i do have illustrator cs3 at home and i have been meaning to improve my skills with that. i plan on making some symbols at home that I can take to and use at work. maybe my boss will appreciate the initiative...?

the cartogram shape was done quite willy nilly, no intention of a building shape, just wanted to make it look unlike china's physical chape to anyone that would look at it. i made the cartogram based on a data sheet, and tried to keep all the shaped very rectangular.

on the skatepark map, i actually made that darker outline around the legend park item, i know its a no no but it was a quick fix becasue the park fill in the legend fell into the transparent grey background. the map is printed 11x17 fyi

[MapMedia]

Defens, Thanks for the follow up. Yes, you will do very well in GIS and with a few pointers (at Cartotalk) you will have some cartographic capabilities too!
Thanks for sharing. Chris