How to start?

• Use my mobile device and GPS their locations.
• Add that to QGIS, maybe add more attributes.
• Tell a story about these places.

Powers earned 🐉

• Create and manipulate data
• with basic understanding of workflows.
• Solid foundation on which to create unique maps.

Maps as art?

• Highly collectable, rare historic maps. Just pick one from the David Rumsey Collection 🔗
• Modern map makers selling wall art at Muir Way 🔗
• Artists making maps: Hell's Hundred Acres, 1960-2000 🔗

Effective map?

• Cartographic design,
• use of map elements,
• and deliberate layout.

Cartographic design

• is data realized on page.
• Subset of graphic design.
• but marks represent real-world features and phenomena.

Puzzles 🧩

• Making a map is a puzzle
• using visual variables on the page.

Visual variables

• Visual characteristics of a map layer that can be used to represent different features, themes, or data categories.

Color, size, shape

• How might you change and combine these to communicate different information?

lines

Previous two maps

• Charles Joseph Minard
• Pioneered the flow line – Wine exports, 1854. (Compare to this map in 1944)
• Figurative Map of the successive losses in men of the French Army in the Russian campaign 1812–1813.

color

Color scheme

• A collection (palette, ramp, scale, etc.) of colors used in a design.
• Choice depends on map layer.
• Advice:
  • specifically for mappers: ColorBrewer
  • and general design: Adobe Color

Rules 🔨

• Do not overuse color.
• Follow conventions (at least initially).
• Use an appropriate color scheme for the feature presented.

Color schemes

• By type: use categorical (qualitative) color scheme, e.g., land use type.
• By magnitude: use sequential (quantitative) color scheme, e.g., county population.
• Reference

You're thirsty

• Do you ask for a pop, soda, or coke?
• popvssoda.com

Mississippi meander belt

• Harold Fisk, 1944
• Color and pattern shows river meandering over time
• Hi-resolution maps

Considerations

• Color vision deficiency (CVD) – 1 in 12 men have condition.
• Color-Contrast Effects – overlapping & adjacent colors influence perception

Hexadecimal

• Condensed color notation
• Used primarily for web colors and a good way to copy color values.
• Examples
  • #000000 = black
  • #ffffff = white
  • #ff0000 = red
  • #ff00ff = magenta

Tips

• Use Chroma.js Color Palette Helper to get color values for classed sequential color schemes.
• Use Adobe Color to get color values for qualitative color schemes.

symbols

Symbol sets

• Combining visual variables to show real-world features and phenomena.
• Maps are mostly symbols.
• Reference

What completes a map?

• Asides, marginalia, surrounds, or elements
• that helps people interpret the map.
• Without them, the map is a graphic.

Required elements

• Title (& subtitle)
  • The what and where.
• Legend (or key)
  • Decipher the visual variables.
• Source attribution & date
  • The who and when.

Elements on reference maps

• Scale
  • for measuring.
• North arrow
  • for orienting.

Other elements?

• Yes, like photos, illustrations, and text
• that enhance your map's story.

What completes a page?

• Balanced layout of all elements on page.
• Compartmentalized system
• vs. a fluid system.

Visual hierarchy

• The order in which the 👁️ perceives what it sees
• should match the intellectual hierarchy.
• Try: title > map > legend

Requirements

• Documentation
• Design a thematic or reference map
• and we'll do it live in class!

Reference Map

• Map used for navigation
• and referencing features.
• Example: USGS Topographic maps 🔗
• Example: Trail map 🔗

Thematic Map

• Map used for showing a particular theme
• like the distribution of population.
• Choropleth map
  • colors polygon to show quantity of distribution.
• Example: Population density 🔗