• Turning a map into an aged paper handout: using blend modes in PhotoShop or Gimp. I’ll bet you can also use TileMill to do this now, with their new color blending options. This is a short how-to, worth looking at.



• Jerry’s top ten crime mapping tips: This is an old pdf from 2001 that starts out with a sarcastic list of map design considerations, akin to the one I put together on a previous April Fool’s Day. The only one I disagree with is the north arrow, which in many cases is just unnecessary. At least he states that it should be simple and small.
• Improve your cartography-ten tips for on-screen maps: This is mostly about color, which the author asserts is the most important thing on a map. I agree that you need to experiment a lot with color before settling on a color scheme.

I was reading a design magazine article over the weekend that provided tips on how to set a well-designed table with miss-matched pieces. (I kid you not.) Though the topic was  table settings the design concepts were generally applicable, even to map making. Here are a few:

If you are tempted to have the same plates, glassware, and silverware at each setting, think about how much more richness and variety you can get from miss-matched pieces if you do it right. Similarly, with a map, it is nice to have some variety in balance and weight. For example, a road map can benefit from intentional de-densification immediately surrounding the city areas. This provides some denser areas of the map where it makes sense to do so, and less dense areas of the map in rural locations to create a balance.

Mix fine patterns with bold patterns. Applying this to map design, don’t make a map that contains crosshatching in every single polygon. Rather, intersperse the crosshatch fill with areas of solid fill. Furthermore, because crosshatching carries such a heavy visual weight, apply it only to the smallest or fewest areas.

Use colors that go well together, like blue patterned plates with solid gray plates. In map design, choose your color theme and go with it: lots of crazy bold colors, monochromatic, complimentary colors, or analogous colors. The key is to enforce that color scheme throughout the design and production process, lest it get away from you.

In order to write this post I’m going to have to admit that I was reading . . . Better Homes and Gardens. Let’s just say a certain in-law keeps getting me a subscription every year. And what are you going to do, just throw it away?

In this month’s issue there’s a story about the NYC High Line, telling readers about the sundeck and the woodland. Yes, super interesting stuff, but what caught my attention was a small map in the sidebar. Here’s what was great about it:

• The roads are denoted with simple strokes that vary in width ever so slightly. A bit arty but not too much.
• Everything fades at the edges of the map, there is no border around the map.
• There is a nice bit of blue to represent water, again fading at the edges.
• Land is white, roads are gray, the High Line is olive green cased in a faint lighter green line.
• Four simple black circles with white numbers indicate four spots that are discussed in the article.

But what is probably the biggest reason for taking note of this map is that it’s a perfect example of how a designer or illustrator sees the map making endeavor as opposed to the GIS person.

I’m not saying you can’t be a GIS person and a design-oriented person at the same time. Indeed, that’s exactly what this blog is all about teaching. But the point is that a lot of GIS people, after having been told to make a map of the Manhattan High Line, would have created maps that look more Rand McNally than Lena Corwin.

I can’t show the map here for risk of copyright infringement, and they don’t have it online. But I can tell you that it’s just a simple little location diagram that works. So that’s the tip for today: if all you need is simple, take the time to simplify.

Related: this post on the High Line’s giant inflated globe

This James Fee post on Spatially Adjusted: Hurricane Tracker 101 is both hillarious and cartographically instructive! A must-read. My own simple take on James’ hipness quotient:

See what I did here with the inverse color-scheme being hip and sporting a Delicious typeface while not hip is stuck with Comic Sans?

A quick post about an issue that crops up from time to time: do we compartmentalize map design concepts into Digital Map Design and Paper Map Design? And if we don’t, doesn’t this mean that we are really writing about Paper Map Design, and that therefore we are completely forgetting about that whole world of map design that exists in the digital realm and are, basically, irrelevant to today’s technology and its specialized needs?

No.

The fundamentals of good design don’t change. Sure, we could add in specifics to web design that are different from print design, but in the end we are still left with the basic goals:

• Make it readable
• Make it usable
• Put in lots of information for an audience that wants to scrutinize heavily
• Put in very little information for an audience that just wants a quick visual
• Aim for seamless-drop the little boxes around everything
• Spend a lot of time tweaking colors for hue-harmony
• If there is a focal point, make sure it stands out (yes, even web maps have some tricks for doing this)

*Including paper as a “device” too

Mike Werth’s infographic of the Best Beer in America reminds us that it is possible to break away from more of the usual and create some really interesting maps that engage, tell stories, and persuade.

Contrast that map with this one. Now, I do realize that this one deals with beer tax, which means it should look a bit more sober, but it is a good illustration of the difference between a much more typical GIS output versus a well designed infographic.

Let’s emphasize that the map directly above is a fine map from a GIS design standpoint. In fact, it’s much better than what the typical GIS analyst, even with a few years of experience can put together. But wow, what a difference some attention to typography, wavy borders, drop shadows, unique legends, and some subject-appropriate background graphics can make/