the map design process and the elements of map composition sp 240 cartography alex chaucer
TRANSCRIPT
The Map Design Process and the Elements of Map
Composition
SP 240 CartographyAlex Chaucer
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Chapter Overview
• Design Process• Elements of Map Composition
Planar Organization Contrast and Design
• Total Map Organization• Visual Hierarchy• Figure-Ground Relationship
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The Design Process
|Problem Identification
|Preliminary Ideas
|Design Refinement
|Analyze
|Decision
|Implementation
changes
feedback
projection
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Design Evaluation
• An outside evaluator never knows what compromises the cartographer had to make to balance decisions in the design process
• A map’s design should be judged only with regard to the map’s purpose and intended audience
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Design Evaluation: Design Characteristics of Successful Maps
1. should be suited to the needs of it’s users2. should be easy to use3. accurate, presenting information without error,
distortions, or misrepresentations4. language of the map should relate to the
elements or qualities represented5. should be clear, legible, and attractive6. creation of many maps would ideally permit
interaction with the user, allowing change, updating, or personalization
Southworth and Southworth, 1982
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Creativity and Visualization
Creativity (def.) the unusual ability to see relationships among elements
“Although there is no recipe for creativity, certain activities appear to be shared by people considered to be great thinkers, scientists, or artists.”
Burdick, 1982
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“Creative” Activities
1. Challenging Assumptions – daring to question what most people take as truth
2. Recognizing patterns – perceiving significant similarities or differences in ideas, events, or physical phenomena
3. Seeing in new ways – looking at the commonplace with new perceptions, transforming the familiar into the strange, and the strange into the familiar
4. Making connections – bringing together seemingly unrelated ideas, objects, or events in ways that lead to new concepts
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“Creative” Activities cont.
5. Taking risks – daring to try new ways, with no control over the outcome
6. Using chance – taking advantage of the unexpected
7. Constructing networks – forming associations for the exchange of ideas, perceptions, questions, and encouragement
How can these activities aide in cartographic design?
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Creativity to Map Design
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Visualization
Visualization Process – a mental process in which the designer experiences whole new creations by rearranging previously stored visual images
Imagining – creating visual images in the mind’s eye; applied to cartographic design: seeing the map before physically creating it
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How New Ideas are Formed…
1. Preparation – visual images stored away2. Incubation - person focuses on other
things3. Illumination – the solution to the problem
appears suddenly4. Verification or revision – the person
consciously works out the details of the solution, formal structures result
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Developing an Image Pool
• Experience as much graphic art, art, and cartography as possible
• Go to art museums, animated film exhibits, go through old atlases
There is also scientific visualization – utilizing computers to test ideas for maps to digitally “sketch” ideas; experimentation
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Some sites to browse to see maps
• www.davidrumsey.com
• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/browse.html
• http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.php
• http://www.itc.nl/personal/kraak/1812/minard-orignal.htm
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Experimentation
• Sometimes you must work things out on paper
• Explore alternatives• Time and cost are enemies to
experimentation
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Map Aesthetics
• The art of cartography• Harmony, composition, clarity
“an ugly map, with crude colors, careless line work, and disagreeable, poorly arranged lettering may be as intrinsically as accurate as a beautiful map, but it is less likely to inspire confidence.”
-John K. Wright, Map Critic
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Map Design – New Challenges
• Today design focuses on the map• There have been great advances in
psychology• To the future you may see a greater
emphasis on integrating the user of the map, and the complexity of cognitive abilities
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Maps
• Used for “Communication”• “Function provides the basis for map
design” -Robinson• The challenge:
a map that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing
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The Map’s Design Elements
• Titles• Legends• Scales• Credits• Mapped Areas• Borders• Symbols• Place Names
Design Principles• Simplicity• Appropriateness• Pleasing Appearance• Considerations of
Economy
Goal is to bring all of these into balance
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Design Levels on the Map
Think of each design element existing on separate planes/levels
Map Composition: thearrangement of the map’s elements
Planar organization: arrangement at a given level
Hierarchical organization: relations between levels
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Elements of Map Composition
Balance• The optical center• Visual weight and direction• Golden section• Inequal divisions: “visually alive”
Focus of Attention• Natural visual equilibrium
Intraparallelism• Internal Organization
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Contrast and Design
Line Contrast• Line weight (flow maps)Texture Contrast• PatternsValue Contrast• Light to Dark areasDetail Contrast• Use detail to draw the eyeColor Contrast
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Total Map Organization, The Visual Hierarchy, and the Figure-Ground Relationship
Figure and Ground Organization Figure – important objects Ground – things less important
Designate the figure and ground first in the creative design process
Visual Hierarchy Important objects are more dominant
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Perceptual Grouping Principles
Items on a map seem to group together as a whole, based on similar:
Shape Size Proximity
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Look for design elements
http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/maps/budapest.gif
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