This week I took county data provided in lab from FDGL in Albers Conical Equal Area projection and mapped Marathon Key, Florida. This required the assistance of Bing Maps as I didn't know Marathon Keys are the middle Keys off the southern tip of Florida. One of the challenges was to get all of the labels on the map in a clear way, utilizing typographical guidelines from our text. Water features can be italicized to more resemble water. Larger structures utilize larger font. The islands (Keys) are labeled with all caps at 14pt to distinguish them from cities that are at 13pt and the location of interest that are at 12pt. The type font I chose was Bell MT as it appeared one of the cleanest. The goal of typology is to utilize the text shape and size to further distinguish items within the map. Still a bit of a struggle to get all the parts in the right format, fit into the area available and still clearly communicate. Leader lines should be similar in angle to avoid chaotic looking map (this is more difficult that it sounds) and should not touch points or text while being in close enough proximity to clearly communicate the intent. Adobe Illustrator (AI) is still new and I find myself overwhelmed at the seemly unlimited amount of options to customize. There is a limited number of map symbols in AI, so I was able to down load one for the state park, airport and country club. I chose to further customize my map with 1) a halo on the title adding emphasis as well as tying colors together 2)a border for the data frame to finish and tie colors together 3) added a small light drop shadow to the islands to add depth but limit interference with small water feature labels.
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