5 replies to this topic

[BradyS]

Hello Everyone,

I have attached a map that I am currently working on to get some advice. The map is of a temporary Indian Reservation that existed only for a few years. The purpose is to show the location of the reservation as if it existed today. It will be used by tribal officials to help teach their history.

I realize that I need to do something with the streams but am not sure what would make it look better. Any other comments would be appreciated.

The elevation model used used for the hillshade was created using Terrain Sculptor.

Brady

Attached Files

•  LocationMap.pdf   875.33K   144 downloads

[Jean-Louis]

Hi Brady,

I am working on some native maps myself.
The first thing I need to mention is that there is no context. As a non-American I have no clue what State that is.
The name of the tribe would be nice also as well as some other situating landmarks cities?
Is the border design significant to this tribe?
The terrain sculpting comes out nice but the overall composition may need a touch of warmer color.
Hope this helps

[razornole]

Hello Brady,

I agree with Jean-Louis.

Regardless of whether the border is significant to the tribe, it is very distracting (not to mention poorly executed) and needs to be removed unless it was specifically requested by your client.

The terrain model dominates this map, and needs to be toned down.

Not a big fan of the mask covering your vectors. In fact, I thought that I-5 was Blackwell Cr and the Rouge River. It also renders your legend useless because none of the symbols under the mask match.

Hope this helps,
kru

[DaveB]

I'm not sure about the color scheme for the hypsometry. It's the reverse of traditional green to brown to a pale gray/white. There's nothing wrong with breaking with tradition if it's done on purpose/for a reason. Are the valleys dry and the mountaintops vegetated?

[BradyS]

I'm not sure about the color scheme for the hypsometry. It's the reverse of traditional green to brown to a pale gray/white. There's nothing wrong with breaking with tradition if it's done on purpose/for a reason. Are the valleys dry and the mountaintops vegetated?

Thanks for the helpful comments. I was attempting to mimic the summer vegetation colors of this area but might need to change to reflect a more tan to darker green color ramp.

Attached Files

•  medfordaerial.pdf   292.44K   37 downloads

[Dennis McClendon]

The watercourses of Zara and Cliff Creek and Modoc Slough are suspiciously straight. Perhaps those are modern rechannelings? Similarly, are the water bodies modern reservoirs that did not exist at the time? And why is a water body a different color blue than the river?

I-5 probably should be a warm color since it runs so close to the Rogue River/Bear Creek. The hierarchy of roads is not clear. Maybe switch all those to warm colors: purple for I-5, reddish brown for Hwy 234, brown for major county roads and medium brown for little logging roads in the high country. I like having the minor roads reverse out of the municipality fill—but this gets to be a problem when they reverse out of the green in the mountains. Roads should either be a positive or a negative throughout the map. And there's consistency problems: SH 62 is red coming north out of Medford, but then the red inexplicably follows only Hwy 140 east out of White City.

Are the township lines really relevant? They can certainly be made more subtle: dark gray or light gray or maybe cream yellow. The eye can follow very thin lines when they're straight.

As for the relief, I think it might be nicer to use the subtle relief colors you have for the non-res area throughout, and mask the non-res area with either a dramatic lightening or darkening. Not intensifying, but the effect of dropping a 20% black shade over all the non-res country, just so you can see the modern cities and highways. That's another reason to use a traditional gold or orange for the municipalities. As it is now, you can't read any stream names inside the res.