Once the audience for the map is considered (see Part 1 of this series) and a sketch map is made and agreed upon (see Part 2 of this series), it is time to further the planning of the overall look and feel of the map by deciding on a color scheme and typography.
Color Scheme
Before you begin creating a color palette for the map with wild abandon, first find out if there are certain colors that must be used on the map. The first possibility is that the map should have colors that represent the company for which you are making it. For example, the Trust for Public Lands has an exact green color that they want to have on most of their products. You’ll need to get the specifications for that green color before designing a map for them. In this example the green hue is not something that has to be incorporated in the map itself, but rather needs to lend the overall layout the TPL signature look – so it is most useful as a border or background color to the entire layout.
The second possibility is that certain data layers on your map need to be represented with a particular color palette. For example, a geology map would need standard geologic colors and a soil age map could utilize a standard soil age palette. Furthermore, the usual standards regarding feature type and color will still hold true: blue for water, red/brown/black for roads, and so on.
Even if you are constrained by some of these color limitations, there will likely be features and elements that you need to create your own colors for. Begin creating your palette by compiling color swatches (I use PowerPoint for this, of all things, but any easy to use graphics program or even your GIS would do) for the colors that are required. Round out whatever there is left to render by picking and choosing colors, matching them with the colors you already have, and figuring out what looks good together. Don’t forget to consider the mood of the piece (loud or soft) as well as accent and background colors. I like to use a generic map in the GIS to populate the colors with so I can make sure they look good together in map form too.
Typography
Choosing the type for your map is much easier than choosing the colors if there aren’t a lot of annotation levels involved. The more annotation levels that you have (think 6 different city/town label groups) the more trouble you will have picking typefaces that have enough variation to capture the different levels while still allowing a cohesive look.
If you do have a lot of annotation levels then pick a typeface with a lot of flavors (e.g., oblique, italics, roman, bold, extra bold). As with colors, always ask your client if they have a corporate typeface that they would prefer you incorporate. Even if you don’t use it in the main map, you could use their typeface for the title and margin elements.
Initial Design Phase = Complete!
Well, that’s it. That’s all there is to the initial design phase. It’s a lot of upfront work and it isn’t your usual fumble-through it using intuition approach. With your audience on board from the get-go they’ll have more buy-in with the finished product. With a sketch map you won’t have to do many on-screen layout changes as you enter the build-phase. And with a design-board of colors you’ll have a template for your next cartography project.
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