Typography & Cartography

Crazy times we are all living in!

I am elated to be writing this, and to be continuing with my GIS education and internship.

Right now, we are facing a global pandemic. Many different things are closed or canceled. Living and working in an area with travelers and tourists, I found myself sick and scared early on. It turns out, I am one of the lucky ones. Although I am a bit behind with work and school, and the experience itself was an unpleasant one, I am slowing catching up. Also, I am feeling more grateful than ever to be here. To anyone that may be reading this, please stay safe and be well.
Best wishes during this difficult time. 

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For our Typography lab at UWF, I got to dig deep into the creative potential that Adobe Illustrator has to offer. This exercise seemed to reprogram my brain, as it moved from the technical, geographic elements and added a more artistic emphasis, closer to graphic design. At first, it was hard to navigate in the software. I made a mistake that required me to start over, which helped in getting to know the exportation process from ArcGIS Pro to Adobe Illustrator.

Once I figured out what I was doing, it started to become very fun. I felt I had a slight advantage to this assignment due to my experience with Adobe software, because I was able to interpret the tools quickly and utilize shortcut keys. Finding the window that contained the tools I wanted was a little tricky, and I need more practice to do any complicated scale conversions. Below is the result of this lab, a scaled map of Marathon, Florida. Ironically, I got engaged to my husband in Marathon Key, and visited many of the destinations labeled on the map:

I customized several elements of this map, including three personalizations stipulated in the assignment summary. First, I customized the North Arrow. Thinking back, this seems rather simple now, but I did not understand the "paths" within the layers, and this was my "Ah-ha!" moment. I could not find a North Arrow that fit in well with my map, and the one that fit best was a bit busy. It looked like a black blob, drawing my eye to it before anywhere else on my map. When I looked at the layer to delete it, I realized it was broke into more than one "path" and I could delete them individually. I ended up with a great North Arrow and some valuable experience.

An important simple adjustment included turning the background blue, making it look like water around the islands/peninsula and filling in negative space without adding any "map crap." I also experimented with the symbols, using a star for the 'Points of Interest' and adding two wildlife centers as visiting destinations to the labeled beach destinations.

Lastly, I accurately "drew" the highway on the map and downloaded the PNG label to place it along the route. Florida's Interstate 1 is a famous highway, as it is the only major road through the Florida Keys. I labeled two popular sections of the route, including the Overseas Highway and Seven Mile Bridge. I felt very satisfied with my map for this assignment and, although I once again faced the frustrating challenge of getting "stuck," I am appreciating the opportunity to build skills in Adobe Illustrator, and to get creative with maps.

Blog entries will be frequent over the next two weeks, more to come!