Cartographer's Toolkit

This is the second part of a four part series that supplies design tips for cartographers inspired by landscape design genres. The first three posts go over these three types: French Formal Garden, English Garden, and Japanese Garden. The fourth post will depart from this by seeking inspiration from the natural (non-cultivated) landscape.

An English Garden is a bit of a confusing genre because it can refer to gardens that evoke an idyllic rural scene (even a bit wild), but it can also mean a well manicured space. Here I’m focusing on the idyllic, rural type. Some characteristics of these types of English Gardens are also applicable to cartography. They are discussed below.

1) HARMONY The English Garden, especially when it first came into being, consisted mainly of rolling hills and water features that gently fit one within the other. In mapping, this would be considered a calm, non-jarring, type of scheme that allows most, and perhaps all, elements to have similar weights and colors. The perfect example map for this is a children’s book, fictional map illustration, that is hand-drawn, and contains minimal changes in color. The map here is a great example because the color is well blended* with a lot of texture. Photograph taken by thoughtbecontact, map by Peggy Turchette

2) LUSH English landscapes are known for their lush quality due to the large amount of rains they get. They can grow amazingly colorful flowers and have very green fields. A map with a lush character has a lot of bold color as well. The example shows a geologic map of the moon. Photograph by ukgardenphotos, map by USGS

3) CHARM An English Garden can be a great example of charming design. Data analysts, such as myself, don’t often involve any elements of charm in our map products, but it is nice to know that there are cartographers out there who have a map audience that can appreciate charm. The map shown here isn’t the best cartographic product in existence but it is a good example of making the look of your map match the audience. The map was made specifically to illustrate the locations of lots in a new development that describes itself as being in a “charming, private, country setting.” Photograph by vigor, map source here

*For one technique on digitally creating a watercolor effect, see this post. Also, remember that Illustrator has a watercolor effect tool that you can apply to a whole map or just part of a map.