OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2 - City Patch Project - Making the Map

Making the Map 

Map Drawing and Refining

To create the map a Google maps image was used as reference for the plotting of all the streets and places within the final map. The map of Leeds was scaled out as far as possible to encompass most of the cities green spaces.

From this the map was then drawn over using tracing paper. The design was drawn in three stages with different thicknesses of pen to reflect the size of the roads. The first layer was of the main roads within the city.

 The next layer focused on the rest of the smaller main roads within the city that are well known, with these being drawn in a thin pen. 

The third layer outlined all of the existing green spaces within the city so that they could be filled later on.

The main road layer was initially drawn using a thin pen however this meant that multiple lanes were showing up within the main roads which wasn't necessary for the map. A thicker pen was used as a way of simplifying the main roads and also defining them more making it more obvious that they were main roads.

These were then scanned into the computer and layered over the top of one another to create the whole map. However because the designs were scanned in this meant that the images had to be image traced, which when done, led to a loss of clarity in the lines and they became less precise.

Adding Colour

With this in mind the map was digitally drawn into Adobe Illustrator to create a more polished design. The line thicknesses of the different roads were varied to help define the larger roads.

The design was then trialed in different colour combinations using the brand colour scheme.

It was considered that the light green or grey could be combined with the opposite darker green or grey. When the grey was used for the background this created quite a dull design. Using the lighter green for the background was fresher however the use of the dark grey for the lines looked a little overpowering and may make it hard to place text over the top.

Combining the light and dark shades of green and light and dark grey together complemented each other better. However using the darker colour for the lines makes the ornaments and logo not stand out as much. 

Rather than using one of the colours from the colour scheme it was considered that only the map could be coloured with a white background as this would create more contrast and be much brighter. Using the light grey for the map, when printed was too faint to really see the map. Using he dark green for the ornaments over the top of the light grey or light green map stood out well. When the dark green was used for the map this meant that the text and patch ornament had to coloured in the dark grey to stand out against the white background and green however this didn't stand out as much as when the lighter colours were used for the map design. Similarly when the dark grey was used for the map design dark green had to be used over the top so that it would stand out against the white background as well. 

Overall it was decided that using the light green for the map design with the dark green patch ornament and dark grey text was the most effective. Both the text and patch ornament stood out well against the light green map which was still clear but subtle against the white background. The use of the light green also fits with the light green boxes that are used within the newsletter and the map creating consistency. 

Adding Text 

Using the original map for reference all the main roads, key locations and patch locations were written onto the map. Locations and roads were refined to essential places otherwise the map would be too busy.

Using the text along a line tool mean that the names of the roads could be added to the map so that they followed the lines of the roads.

The map had to be duplicated as when the text along a line tool was used, it would get rid of the line that was originally there and replace it with the text. 

Creating all the the text on another layer meant that when the roads had all been put in the original map could be seen underneath. Using black for the type however was too dark and would distract from other information on the map.

Changing the road text to dark green stood out on the map lines but was still subtle. It was considered that landmarks would need to be placed on the map to help people find the patches. Making these green but in bold made them subtle in a similar way however the use of the bolder weight suggested they were more important than the road names. 

 

The patch locations would use the darker grey for the text to allow this information to stand out within the map. To follow with the branding and newsletter the names of the patches would be set over two lines.

Final Map 

In the final map the logo was used to represent the different patches around the city, with the size of the logo dictating the size of the patch e.g. whether it is small or large. The patch ornament was used to represent the location of landmarks around the city. Using the green allowed it to match the location type colour.