6 replies to this topic

[Damien7]

Hi guys,

 

First post although I've been admiring the work on here for a while! Some of the stuff you guys can do is amazing, and I'd like to start moving up a level in terms of what I can produce.

 

The map attached is a simple map requested by a client to show blanket bog and upland heath areas in the Yorkshire Dales National Park that isn't Keepered Grousemoor.

 

Please feel free to critique it. The base mapping isn't ideal (I'd prefer black and white to make the colour scheme stand out more).

 

My real reason for sharing this map is to kindly ask for advice as to what the next steps might be to add some 'polish' to the map? I created the map solely using ArcMap which I'm guessing is pretty obvious :-) however I recently bought a copy of Illustrator and wish to have a play at what is possible with this map of bog and heath.

 

I am aware of the workflow people use to roughly process data sets in ArcMap then do the majority of the cartography in

Illustrator. However I'm stuck for ideas as to what to actually do once the map is in Illustrator. 

 

In a nutshell, what would you do to this map in Illustrator to add some polish and make it not look so 'ArcMappy'?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Damien

Attached Files

•  Blanket_Bog_and_Heath_V2.jpg   182.85K   172 downloads

[Charles Syrett]

The legend seems overly large to me, and the scale bar a little crude, but the map itself looks pretty good from what I can see. Perhaps the muting of the surrounding area could be less extreme.

 

Is there some way you can post a higher-res version? Or perhaps an encrypted pdf? It's difficult to critique this, because it's barely legible, even when downloaded.  You should also tell us the physical size of the map (to get a sense of legibility) and who the intended viewers will be, as well as a little more about the purpose.

 

Another thing: Why does a map have to look non-"ArcMappy"? As long as it follows the generally accepted guidelines used in cartographic communication, what does it matter what software is used? I personally rarely use either Arc or Illustrator (there are far less cumbersome programs available that do the job more quickly and efficiently for my purposes), but if you can create a map that's well designed and communicates well, all within Arc, more power to ya!

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

[Dennis McClendon]

The big advantage of Illustrator is that it allows you to directly move features and labels.  So it allows you to very easily solve problems like "Yorkshire Dales National Park" being under a brown bog, or only getting four characters of "T H E _  P E N N I N E S."  Features don't need to be moved as often, but you can deal directly with how coincident boundaries look, even shifting one or another by a few points instead of setting a universal rule for the whole world.  That might aid you with the yellow and green outlines, particularly down near Settle.

 

For a technical map like this, other kinds of refinements are not so important or appropriate.  Many of us on the "graphic design" side of things might look for a more graceful way to integrate the National Grid, the north arrow, and the notes block.  But obviously this is a map that must conform to expected internal standards for such things.  (There must be a joke in here somewhere about making a bog-standard map.)

 

In either type of software, I would ask if there are better colour choices for the bog types, ones that would allow the feature names to be read on top of those areas.

[Damien7]

Thanks for your replies guys, really appreciated.

 

Charles, I agree regarding the legend, size really becomes apparent when you see a thumbnail of the map. The severity of the muting is simply because the client was only interested in what was inside the National Park so I figured a muted base map was probably better than white space .

 

Apologies about the resolution. I tried various export settings and zipping but it was still a real struggle getting below the 1MB limit. Guessing large file size is a result of the raster base mapping.

 

Not wanting my maps to look so 'ArcMappy' comes from wanting more freedom when it comes to how the map looks and options for making it look better. I agree though, as long as it does it's job then it shouldn't matter what software is used.

 

In terms of physical size, the client requested A3. The map will be used to visualise areas of blanket bog and upland heath that do not fall in keepered grouse moor estates, in relation to roads and other notable features. It is just a visual aid to back up a set of statistics that has also been produced. Both will be used by people familiar with the area.

 

Dennis, I agree probably not the best map to ask for design advice with it being such a technical one with little room for creativity. Thanks for the labelling advice, ArcMap has proved frustrating in terms of labelling so hopefully Illustrator will be of use here.

 

Overlay of polygons on the base map appeared the only option here. With base mapping being in a raster format the labels were unfortunately obscured with little alternative apart from add transparency meaning the areas of bog became less apparent.

 

I tried to reflect the nature of features being mapped when choosing the colours.

 

Certainly a bog standard map!

 

Thanks again guys

[Bogdanovits]

You could play more with the balance of colours.

This is a thematic map but the two brown themes are like the hypsometry. Change it if is possible.

Don't be affraid to change the green labels to a darker green (add some black)

The administrative lines are in the same yellowish colours. Play with magenta+cyan combinations here.

Good luck.

PS. And make the area in the legend smaller :-)

Cheers,

 

Andras

au.linkedin.com/in/bogdanovits/

[frax]

Another reason to use Illustrator is that it is much easier to use masks, transparency and effects (like drop shadows)!

[mcallisterw]

The legend area will be a standard size, this appears to be a public administration map, I'm presuming produced for the National Park Authority. The location and size of the legend and other information are not based on cartographic principles, but are designed to still be visible when the plan is folded in a particular way, probably nothing the OP can do about it.

 

I would perhaps use an alternative basemap though, one of OS's vector products, so that labels such as 'The Pennines' can be kept within the bounds of the map, colours can be muted for non-essential features, such as roads, which are usually brightly coloured, but incidental to the purpose of this map, and the map can be overall simplified.

 

A hillshade would be nice seeing as this deals with upland country