8 replies to this topic

[Josh]

Hi everyone,
I'm struggling with what I thought would be a very simple action. I have 12 pages to layout the 50 United States. I am not contrained by zoom so if needed I can have RI occupy one entire page and put TX AZ and CA all on another (obviously this would be poor use of space). Has anyone puzzled the states out in such a manner and if so could you stear me in the direction of how best to fit this all together!
Thanks tons!
yeah i know it's a real simple question

[Hans van der Maarel]

Hi everyone,
I'm struggling with what I thought would be a very simple action. I have 12 pages to layout the 50 United States. I am not contrained by zoom so if needed I can have RI occupy one entire page and put TX AZ and CA all on another (obviously this would be poor use of space). Has anyone puzzled the states out in such a manner and if so could you stear me in the direction of how best to fit this all together!
Thanks tons!
yeah i know it's a real simple question

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do they need to be shown in geographic relation to eachother or can you mix and match?

Depending on the purpose, I wouldn't go for mix and match, but try and follow the 'traditional' division in regions (northwest, north, northeast etc). Then have one page for Alaska and Hawaii together and see if you can put the eastern states on 2 pages per region rather than 1.

[Josh]

I do need to keep geographic relation to eachother and probably not have too many different scales. I know this is more of a "work with these constraints" issue, but if anyone knows of some good examples of how other maps have dealt with dividing the states, that would be great help

[Nick Springer]

Richard Saul Wurman made an Atlas of the US using fixed scale for each page and divided the country up that way. Have a look at that book for some ideas.

[Josh]

Richard Saul Wurman made an Atlas of the US using fixed scale for each page and divided the country up that way.  Have a look at that book for some ideas.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks! I'll check that book out if i can find it at our local library...or online.

[Matthew Hampton]

I think I would try and keep roughly the same scale and be somewhat systematic about it.

Divide and conquer.

Split the country in half (west to east) and devote 6 pages to each half. It would roughly be the Loiusianna border north along the Missouri river to Minnesota (except maybe create a Nebraska-Missouri-Kansas-Iowa page). Then make combinations of states like Wahington-Oregon-Idaho, Utah-Colorado-Arizona-New Mexico, etc.

Perhaps it would make sense to try and keep adjoining states that have similar bioregions on the same page.

I would suggest getting several copies of the outline of the US (on 8.5x11 paper) and 12 different colored pens and experiment coloring different combinations of states per page until it becomes a little clearer.

I hope you can post your findings.

[Josh]

Thanks cartomat,
This seems like a good strategy. I have a lot of expirience making large wall maps but have actually never been required to "chop up" the states like this. It is actually an interesting problem...
thanks for breaking it down...i'll post my finished results (or outline) when i'm done.

[Dennis McClendon]

I'm a little unclear on what you want to do. Are you looking for an optimal way to divide a map of the lower 48 into 11 sections? Or are you making 50 state maps and looking for an optimal way to arrange those onto 12 pages?

If it's the former, any world atlas will have devoted some effort to the best way to divide up North America or the US. As mentioned, Wurman's USAtlas and Michelin's current North America Road Atlas are exceptions to the usual USAn pattern of having one page for each state in road atlases, but they use many more than 12 pages.

Here's a quick sketch, using two scales (one that's 150% of the other) in order to show greater detail in the more populated East and California:

Attached Files

•  US_atlas_layout.GIF   39.99K   109 downloads

[Josh]

I'm a little unclear on what you want to do.  Are you looking for an optimal way to divide a map of the lower 48 into 11 sections?  Or are you making 50 state maps and looking for an optimal way to arrange those onto 12 pages?

If it's the former, any world atlas will have devoted some effort to the best way to divide up North America or the US.  As mentioned, Wurman's USAtlas and Michelin's current North America Road Atlas are exceptions to the usual USAn pattern of having one page for each state in road atlases, but they use many more than 12 pages.

Here's a quick sketch, using two scales (one that's 150% of the other) in order to show greater detail in the more populated East and California:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

THAT is exactly what I was imagining. THanks....i'll post the final product in a few months:)