Module 2: Typography

 

    Hello all, for this week's cartography lab we had the objective to create a map showing the major cities, rivers, and swamp/marshes in Florida. We were learning the importance of typography when it comes to principles in map making. Below is my map I created for this project. As you can see I display all essential map elements which include a title, legend, north arrow, scale bar, and credits. While not always required I did include an inset map of where Florida is in the United States. I chose some unique symbology when labeling the capital of the state, as shown below Tallahassee is labeled with a star while the other major cites are listed with a circle. I show red for this symbology is contrast against the light background map and state color as this where one of the prominent features for this map's purpose. Rivers are labeled in blue italics as water features typically are. However, the unique thing about the other water features (swamp/marsh) included are that they are made of up wetlands. In order to show this distinction between the water features I show to mark the swamps and marshes a true green color to contrast with the base map to better show the reader these features. For the typography, I limited the choices to Arial for the cities and Bodoni MT for the water features. In order for the word not to get lost in the map, I applied a halo around the lettering. I did have to use annotations to move the water feature labels to places that aloud for greater legibility

Overall this was a fun exercise to explore the different map customizations ArcGIS has to offer.