Reference Map of Hometown



 

For this exercise I produced a reference map of my hometown, Cedarburg, WI.  We were instructed to create the map in Adobe Illustrator, including some standard map design elements and paying respect to the essentials of map design.  First, I obtained an areal image of downtown Cedarburg using ArcMap, then I exported the image into Adobe Illustrator to create the the map displayed below.  I used the ArcMap image to trace some of the major geographic features like roads, rivers and ponds.  Once the major features were drawn out, I used Google Maps as a reference to find the locations of parks, schools, buildings, etc.

I used green tones for parks, grey for the background and blue for water to make different areas easy to identify and create a nice figure-ground appearance.  I used a few symbols to represent different elements to make the map more visually pleasing.  Labels are provided for elements of the map that I found important, such as parks, roads, schools, and water bodies.  While producing the map, I ran into a few problems deciding what elements to include in order to maintain legibility.  I used some cartographic generalization to make the map easier to interpret.  The legend and text boxes are white with borders to make them easy to read and distinguishable.  I tried to arrange the elements of the map in a way that created a nice balance and clarity.