22 replies to this topic

[Jacques Gélinas]

Hi,

This map will be published early September.
Scale 1: 35 000
Size: 60 inches x 24 inches (big)
Purpose: authentic wall map for reference and display.

Software used: MapPublisher, GeographicImager, MapInfo and VerticalMapper.
Technics: all kinds of trial and error until I got what I wanted.

For your perusal:
Parc de la Gatineau wall map

Although the map is ready to be published your comments will be gratefully accepted and considered.

The concept for this map started back in 2006. So this one as been long in the making.

I am now working on the marketing aspect. (comments here are also welcomed).
I am also fine tuning the business model for future publications.

Please note that the related site is in French only (this is part of the business model).


King Regards,

Edited by Jacques Gélinas, 11 May 2012 - 06:34 PM.

[Laura Miles]

I find it very visually appealing, and easy to read. The background fades away and lets the important information come forward. Good job!

[Claude]

That is a very handsome map. It reminds me of some of the fine work over at Cartifact like their map of LA's Griffith Park. My only question is whether all the elevations are necessary as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of variation in elevation from one point to another.
Impressive use of VerticalMapper as well! I always found that to be a great little plug-in for MI when I used MapInfo.

[razornole]

The map looks fine in the two seconds I have to view it. Is there anyway to keep it from jumping around, or are you going to fix that once your site is up and running?

Thanks for sharing, and post again once the website is up and running.

kru

[Jacques Gélinas]

Laura, thanks for your comments.

Claude, thank you for your comments.
Point well taken on the use of spot heights, I did consider not using spot heights. There are quite a few cliffs, and some hiking trails sections are quite steep (40%+). The highest point is around 425 meter and the lowest around 80 meters above sea level. So my overall approach was to put height values to assist the shaded relief. I should maybe consider deleting a few however.

Kru, There is a pause button on the lower left of the slide show (two parallel bars). I will consider starting the slide show in the pause mode. Thanks for your comment.

Other notes
I will be taking some photos of a mounted map soon. This I hope will give people a better overall look. For now the sample are clipped from the final photoshop file.
Also for those looking for a scale relation. The blue dotted grid is exactly 2.25 inches in reality.

Regards,
looking forward to other comments.

[Paul H]

Is there a legend?

[razornole]

Thanks for letting me know. I still didn't find the pause button (it could be a Mozilla browser thing), but it is not jumping around now. I must have found something.

It is a very attractive map. I guessing the shades of green are for different vegetation, but what are the different shades of blue?

I agree with the Claude and the elevations, however, if you just dropped them in the visual hierarchy they would almost disappear on their own yet still be there.

On the escarpment slide, is the grey bare rock? If so well done cause that what it looks like to me.

The sailboat looking icons which I believe are actually a canoe and a tent to represent canoe camping locations. I feel these could be executed a little better. It is hard to tell where the camp spots are located. For example # 6 & 7 are they on the north or south side of the peninsula?

I enjoyed reviewing the map, but I would really like to see a slide of the legend.

Thanks,
kru

[Jacques Gélinas]

To Paul H ...
Q: Is there a legend? ...
R: No not on the map. There will be an online legend available early September when the map is published.
Why: The map is intended to be a decorative reference wall map. When designing it I wanted a 'continuous' look of the area. I also had numerous non cartographic literate people (friends and family) review the map. I was surprise that very few asked that question. I also think that a well designed general purpose map should have a limited use for a legend. (not to say that I still have a lot to learn in that regards).

Kru
R: I change to slide show to start off in the pause. (Still not sure why you can't see the pause button as I also use Firefox) But hey it worked.

Q: I guessing the shades of green are for different vegetation
A: Yes, dark for evergreens, medium green for mixed forest and the lighter for 'trees whit leaves'

Q: What are the different shades of blue?
A: Here maybe a legend would help... I think lakes are obvious (anyway I hope) however maybe a legend would help with the marshes and flooded lands.

Q: I agree with the Claude and the elevations, however, if you just dropped them in the visual hierarchy they would almost disappear on their own yet still be there.
R: Good point, however because there is a darker hue to represent the area within the park area, it was a bit of nightmare to come up with a balanced look on the PRINTED copy. But I will consider your comments on that issue.

C: On the escarpment slide, is the grey bare rock? If so well done cause that what it looks like to me.
R: Thanks no need for a legend on that one

C: The sailboat looking icons which I believe are actually a canoe and a tent to represent canoe camping locations. I feel these could be executed a little better. It is hard to tell where the camp spots are located. For example # 6 & 7 are they on the north or south side of the peninsula?
R: Thanks for the comment, I will try to improve.

[Dennis McClendon]

Handsome work. You might make the gridlines a lighter lineweight, greyer colour, or make them dots spaced a little further apart. They seem very prominent and are very similar to the municipality boundaries. Since they're all straight, the eye would be able to follow them easily, even if they were 0.5 point dots spaced four points apart.

If you do add a legend, you could make it all horizontal, subtly arrayed across the bottom of the sheet below the neatline. Very minimalist.

[Jacques Gélinas]

Dennis

Thank you for your comments.

R: You might make the gridlines a lighter lineweight, greyer colour, or make them dots spaced a little further apart. They seem very prominent and are very similar to the municipality boundaries. Since they're all straight, the eye would be able to follow them easily, even if they were 0.5 point dots spaced four points apart.
A: I will definitely give it a try. Thanks

R:If you do add a legend, you could make it all horizontal, subtly arrayed across the bottom of the sheet below the neatline. Very minimalist.
A: To be quite honest this never crossed my mind. And as you say this would not make the legend as prominent.

Thanks again for your comments.

[Jacques Gélinas]

I added a zoomify version for those who really want to look at all aspects of the map. Not as crisp as I would like, but I hope it will be OK for reviewing.
I'll keep that page up for a week or so.

Zoomify version is no longer available.

You can view information for this map at www.cartesGEOGRAPHIQUES.ca

Again your comments are very much appreciated as this is my first attempt at self publishing.

EDIT (05-07-2011):
The link as been removed. Should you want to look at the 'zoomify' version again. Please drop me a line and I will send you a new link.

[razornole]

Hello Jacques,

I finally found the pause, but only after I hit the play button (it then changed to the pause icon). I would have noticed that before, I think or hope. You might want to chalk this one up as a user error. At least that is settled.

The lake issue is very confusing. I assume Lac means lake in french. On one slide Lac Meech is dark blue and on another Lac des Loups is light blue, to add to the confusion, there is a dark blue unnamed lake just to the west of it on the same slide. And finally to top it off, there is a dark blue river line in the headwaters that changes to light blue just before the confluence of Lac des Loups. Maybe this is a karst region and that is a sinking/loosing stream but I am thinking it has something to do with your dashed-yellow boundary line.

It would be easy to fix the elevations, change the color of your font. Dark areas make it a little lighter, light areas make it a little darker. Either way I would drop the transparent background for your elevations.

kru

[Jacques Gélinas]

KRU:

C: The lake issue is very confusing. I assume Lac means lake in french. On one slide Lac Meech is dark blue and on another Lac des Loups is light blue, to add to the confusion, there is a dark blue unnamed lake just to the west of it on the same slide. And finally to top it off, there is a dark blue river line in the headwaters that changes to light blue just before the confluence of Lac des Loups. Maybe this is a karst region and that is a sinking/loosing stream but I am thinking it has something to do with your dashed-yellow boundary line.

R: The yellow dash boundary lines are the Park limits. Most elements outside the Park have a 40% opaque mask, thus making elements outside the park look lighter. This technique is commonly used. When you are only looking at a small section of the map this might be confusing. But when you look at the printed map the confusion is lessen. One thing I should consider is added a few label along the boundary.

----------------------------

C: It would be easy to fix the elevations, change the color of your font. Dark areas make it a little lighter, light areas make it a little darker. Either way I would drop the transparent background for your elevations.

R: I made a lot of tests regarding the representation of spot heights within the park. I tried various blending (e.g. color dodge, darken ect) and the printed results were not to my liking. For on screen viewing I agree, there is no need for the transparent background. However unless I go to a designer black or white for the font fill for spot height values I could not get a brown hue to show constantly well on the printed version without using some sort of knockout behind the text. For me black or white for spot height values was not an option.

Thank you for your comments

[Charles Syrett]

As a graphic, I love this map. It has a very contemporary look and feel. Can you let us know what fonts you used?

I'm still a little puzzled about the overall concept, though. If it's for display, and decorative, then why is there so much technical detail? Some parts of it look almost cluttered and overly busy.

I've attached, for your amusement, a portion of a map of the same park from 1970. In many ways I would rather look at your map (the aesthetics really are over the top), but if I wanted a map that I could actually take with me and use (and it was 1970!) I would take the attached map. Note the old-timey clarity and conciseness, not to mention airbrushed shaded relief (created using human brain interpretive skills and hand-eye coordination), as well as Goudy and Futura (very de rigeur fonts in the 60s, and probably already dated-looking by 1970). Oh -- and the tree pattern for wooded areas.

Thanks for posting this. Please keep the Zoomify version up!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

Attached Files

•  GatineauPkMap1970.jpg   484.03K   54 downloads

[Jacques Gélinas]

Hi Charles,

Your comments are quiet appreciated. I have often referred some of my clients to you in the past. (never got around to letting you know )

Q: Can you let us know what fonts you used?
A: Off the top of my head,
Fontin
Arno Pro
Sanvito
Myriad Pro
Delicious
Bell Gothic
Nueva.

(if you need to know for what they were used for, drop me a line and will give you a listing)


C: I'm still a little puzzled about the overall concept, though. If it's for display, and decorative, then why is there so much technical detail? Some parts of it look almost cluttered and overly busy.
R: Yes the map's intent are for decorative display. But when I displayed a printed version to fellow friends and family I was led to believe that most map reader like to find what there looking for on a map. The 'I've been there... but it is not on the map' is not well perceived. So I guess like some of NG maps I think more is better. It makes for some parts of the park more cluttered but that is the nature of that park.

C: I've attached, for your amusement, a portion of a map of the same park from 1970. In many ways I would rather look at your map (the aesthetics really are over the top), but if I wanted a map that I could actually take with me and use (and it was 1970!) I would take the attached map. Note the old-timey clarity and conciseness, not to mention airbrushed shaded relief (created using human brain interpretive skills and hand-eye coordination), as well as Goudy and Futura (very de rigeur fonts in the 60s, and probably already dated-looking by 1970). Oh -- and the tree pattern for wooded areas.
A: Nice map, never found that one when I was compiling information (I remember scribbing such trees way back...). Yes that map is more of a true trail map and I would prefer that one in my backpack. Depending how it goes I might produce some trail maps with contours...


C: Please keep the Zoomify version up!
A: I'll try to keep a version up and running... but not sure I'll make a link for it on the site itself.