16 replies to this topic

[MapMedia]

This map is mostly complete, but am open to ideas.

This map needs to show the oceans of the world in one map, and be grayscale + 1 color.
This is a 2 page map, so I have accounted for the gutter in the middle.

Nothing special about the process - 20% Photoshop, 80% Illustrator

My concern is that the oceans aren't demarcated - What is your impression?

Happy Holidays!

Attached Files

•  OceansMap.jpg   523.67K   190 downloads

[Nick H]

My concern is that the oceans aren't demarcated - What is your impression?

I'm not sure if the bounds of the oceans have ever been accurately defined according to a universally-accepted convention so I'd leave them out, they'd only be confusing anyway.

Regarding the map, I think the usual convention is that labels for water features should be in italics. Personally, I find the labelling of both continents and oceans to be over-large. It might be preferred to separate the North Atlantic Ocean from the South Atlantic Ocean. I guess the purpose of the map dictates what places are shown as point labels. What to do about the problem of the 'Arctic Ocean' and 'Southern Ocean' labels I just don't know, but they ought to be on the map if possible.

The two halves of a label like 'Pacific Ocean' belong together, perhaps this could be done using curved text stretched and orientated to suit.

Regards, N.

[Pete]

I like it!

Question: can you reasonably demarkate the oceans?

What I would do is maybe darken the overall gradient in the water and then draw a rought polygon over the general ocean areas. Give your rough areas a chunky black outline, blur the beejeezus out of them and change the blending mode to "screen". With the black outline you can change the pale area in the middle of each ocean by increasing or decreasing the stroke width and you can alter the overall opacity of layer to give a greater or lesser impact.

Only criticism is the black annotation for the Southern and Arctic Oceans ... any change you could put the map on a dark backgroun and use white annotation like the rest of the map? Failing that could you give the map a fluffy dark outline?

[Pete]

Sort of like this ...

 Untitled_1.gif   856.34K   68 downloads

... only better !

The lighter patches in the centre of each ocean area will help to fixate the viewer and draw them towards the individual oceans - even if they aren't delineated - rather than draw to eye towards the centre of the map.

[Michael Schmeling]

I like the map, but the annotations on the land areas are poorly legible - e.g. Monaco and Himalaya are hard to read.

[Luciano]

I really like the simplicity of the map and I think you have got a good eye for color.

I'm going to fling a few ideas at you but since I don't have it drawn out I have no idea if they'll work. I'll see if I can create something in photoshop later tonight with some of the ideas below drawn out.

Ocean Labels
- With the Northern hemisphere being landmass heavy (and the same color as your ocean labels) I would consider moving the labels of all the oceans to halfway between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.
- Consider spacing (aka "leading") the gap between the names of the ocean (Pacific / Atlantic / Indian) and the second word "Ocean" the same so they don't vary in spacing.
- I also like making them fit to the standard by changing them to Italics like mentioned above.
- Not sure how to deal with the top bottom ocean labels, so consider placing the Arctic/Southern Oceans in the center at their respective locations; or keep one on the left (top if your audience reads from left to right like in the USA, bottom if your audience reads from right to left) and move the other equidistant t0 the right.

Continent Labels
- Consider using a lighter gray color to draw less attention to the names.
- When possible center the names to their respective continents, which would make the names less distracting.
- Keep the spacing between letters the same and don't angle the name of Antarctica.

Circle of Latitudes
- Instead of putting the names above the lines, break up the line with the name. Sort of like this
--------- Tropic of Capricorn---------
- Place a versions of the following three labels consisting of Cancer/Equator/Capricorn on both side-ends of the map.

Good luck and sorry for the long ramble,

Luciano

[DaveB]

Since you said it's a "World Oceans" map why is the Pacific Ocean broken up? How about shifting the central meridian so that the oceans are all as continuous as possible?

[MapMedia]

My concern is that the oceans aren't demarcated - What is your impression?

I'm not sure if the bounds of the oceans have ever been accurately defined according to a universally-accepted convention so I'd leave them out, they'd only be confusing anyway.

Regarding the map, I think the usual convention is that labels for water features should be in italics. Personally, I find the labelling of both continents and oceans to be over-large. It might be preferred to separate the North Atlantic Ocean from the South Atlantic Ocean. I guess the purpose of the map dictates what places are shown as point labels. What to do about the problem of the 'Arctic Ocean' and 'Southern Ocean' labels I just don't know, but they ought to be on the map if possible.

The two halves of a label like 'Pacific Ocean' belong together, perhaps this could be done using curved text stretched and orientated to suit.

Regards, N.

Thank you Nick. Great ideas!

My only reason for not using italics was the ocean labels were really the most prominent label and didn't want them to loose any 'pop'.
I tried moving the meridian of the map to 90 but this shifted north America over the horizon and the author has points of interest on the west coast, so had to use a default 0 meridian.

[MapMedia]

Sort of like this ...

 Untitled_1.gif   856.34K   68 downloads

... only better !

The lighter patches in the centre of each ocean area will help to fixate the viewer and draw them towards the individual oceans - even if they aren't delineated - rather than draw to eye towards the centre of the map.

Thank you, Pete! I like the example. I will try your idea for ocean demarcation.

[MapMedia]

I really like the simplicity of the map and I think you have got a good eye for color.

I'm going to fling a few ideas at you but since I don't have it drawn out I have no idea if they'll work. I'll see if I can create something in photoshop later tonight with some of the ideas below drawn out.

Ocean Labels
- With the Northern hemisphere being landmass heavy (and the same color as your ocean labels) I would consider moving the labels of all the oceans to halfway between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.
- Consider spacing (aka "leading") the gap between the names of the ocean (Pacific / Atlantic / Indian) and the second word "Ocean" the same so they don't vary in spacing.
- I also like making them fit to the standard by changing them to Italics like mentioned above.
- Not sure how to deal with the top bottom ocean labels, so consider placing the Arctic/Southern Oceans in the center at their respective locations; or keep one on the left (top if your audience reads from left to right like in the USA, bottom if your audience reads from right to left) and move the other equidistant t0 the right.

Continent Labels
- Consider using a lighter gray color to draw less attention to the names.
- When possible center the names to their respective continents, which would make the names less distracting.
- Keep the spacing between letters the same and don't angle the name of Antarctica.

Circle of Latitudes
- Instead of putting the names above the lines, break up the line with the name. Sort of like this
--------- Tropic of Capricorn---------
- Place a versions of the following three labels consisting of Cancer/Equator/Capricorn on both side-ends of the map.

Good luck and sorry for the long ramble,

Luciano

Thank you Luciano! Great ideas, esp. the latitude type. As for continent label spacing, I tried to place the labels out of the gutter, since this is a 2 page spread. I also will try the ocean labeling option you described - it may just work

[MapMedia]

Since you said it's a "World Oceans" map why is the Pacific Ocean broken up? How about shifting the central meridian so that the oceans are all as continuous as possible?

True - my 1st minute spent on the map was testing different projection and moving the meridian around, but alas labeling of points of interest dictate the use of standard 'world view'.

[MapMedia]

Here is a revision - showing the gutter placeholder.

It seems I have to use PMS 640 so had to change the surface color and remove the gradient.

I tried sneaking in the Arctic and Southern Ocean labels into the map itself.

Attached Files

•  OceansMap2.jpg   388.96K   47 downloads

[Pete]

It seems I have to use PMS 640 so had to change the surface color and remove the gradient.

Oh, I'm so sorry !

Still, the colour scheme you're left with is good and bright without being a slap in the face.

It's looking good although I'm not mad keen on the way the ocean names line up quite so neatly along the middle of the map. I admit I prefered the distribution of the lettering on your previous version but I do understand why people would prefer the names to be a bit more "together" ... it's just the way you had it before seemed to fill the space better.

[MapMedia]

Yes, I agree on both counts. Back to the dungeon!

[s hubbard]

can you use a bigger projection, for more map area? and then decrease the label size more...i still think the labels are too big for the oceans. and maybe fade the equator/meridians some (transparency)