Marathon Key; Typography

This week was typography or the process of, well, labeling according to cartographic principles. For this week we had to create a map of Marathon Key to exhibit our understanding of good cartographic typography as we understood it from both the lecture and chapter 11 in our text.  

The tricky part with Marathon Key is that it is not easy to label the required areas via the guidelines. So the use of leader lines was heavily employed. As for the various keys, I placed the text alongside the coast lines. I thought this would make it more apparent and easy to read. Except for Crawl Key, it's such a small feature that I used a leader line. 

I used two font styles. For the cities and keys, I used Casteller and for the title, water, and various places on the key, I used century new gothic. Both fonts are easy to read. For labeling the water features (except for Florida Bay) I went with a white font. This was to help differentiate the feature from the keys and I also enjoyed the aesthetic look of how the text seems to sink into the drop shadow. I used drop shadows to make the features easier on the eyes. Without the shadows, the key itself just bled into the blue. 

I went with a simple color scheme of blue and green. This is more intuitive for most people especially when dealing with an island. It makes it more apparent.  

Also, the island was rotated to be horizontal with the north compass also rotated to reflect the directionality. I did this for two reasons. First it made it easier to work with. I was able to label the features batter and include the basic elements (insert, legend, scale, compass) in a more linear fashion. Because I did this, I went with a north arrow that included east, west and south to make it easier to understand that the map is not true north from bottom up. I went with a simplistic compass. Second, I feel it's easier for the map reader to understand. Admittedly, I may of created too much dead space between the title and the island. 

I attempted to adhere to the principles of topography as outlined in the text and discussed in the lecture. However, I did have a hard time lining up the leader lines with the points. Also, given the lack of land I tried my best to label features such as the keys in the best way possible. I realize there is room for improvement. 

The process was simple. First, I created the map in ArcGIS. I found GIS data made by FDOT so I could include US route 1. The highway shield was created in arc as were the points for the towns. I created the insert by using Florida counties shape file and finding a good scale for it. I used the extent feature in the properties to create the small red box. The labels, legend and tile were all created in AI. 

I created the border by making a new layer that had blue (the background) with a thick grey edge.  I really developed a better sense of the layering and used that to my advantage in making the map. I was mindful of the hierarchy so to speak. 

And that's it in a nutshell. Hope you enjoy.