Here is a final blog post of all the map I made in my Geography 200 course, Geographic Techniques. Each map highlights certain skills and applications in mapping geographic information representing the real world. I became familiar with Adobe Illustrator CS6 and further practiced my skills in ArcGIS.
Africa Reference Map
This was our first map of the semester, this is where we first applied our knowledge of adobe illustrator CS6, the five essentials of map design: Figure-ground, legibility, clarity, balance, and visual hierarchy, and we applied map elements such as title, legend, scale, data information, neat line, labels, etc. This map was a good introduction to the complications to mapping, for example trying to fit all the labels within their appropriate boundaries wasn’t always possible and having to place guidelines for labeling phenomenon’s such as rivers or desert ranges. I used a 6 distinct hues to color this map, I wanted something that wasn’t overly bright and overwhelming instead I picked neutral colors that were still able to pop out for the reader. For my first map I’d say it’s not too shabby but now as I look back at it there are definitely areas for improvement.
Projections of South America
For this map we made a document stressing the importance of datums and projections and how they can drastically affect the shape, area, orientation, distance and direction. There are many different map projections that vary in distortion and this highlights the great difficulty of mapping a 3D object into a 2D projection. In order to map these differences we acquired the different map projections from ArcGIS and pasted them into Adobe Illustrator. From here we overlapped them at the 60 degrees west of the prime meridian (not featured in my map). Some difficulties I encountered were transferring the projection from ArcMap into illustrator, even slightly moving the map in ArcMap would disrupt the alignment in illustrator. I think thoroughly explaining map projections importance and keeping the legend clean was difficult. There was a lot of information to include in this assignment but I think it turned out fine. I used a light gray background to help the hues be more distinguishable.
Satellite Positioning Map
For this project I used a Garmin eTrex GPS unit and set it for a tracking mode that would collect points every 20 seconds during my run, afterwards I transferred the data to ArcGIS to be mapped. By choosing a point collection time of 20 seconds my route couldn’t be 100% accurate because it simply connects the waypoints. In fact I see that on the map when turning a corner in Carson Park it appears that I ran through the lake when in fact i didn’t! There is also some minimal inaccuracy in some places along the track but that could be because of poor satellite connection due to tree coverage or just the general disruptions that can occur while using a GPS system. This map is very simplistic, showing just the path I took on and ariel base map supplied by ESRI.
Reference Map of our Hometown 
For this map I used ArcMap to obtain an aerial image of my hometown, I arranged the image in ArcMap’s Layout View, and exported the image as an Adobe Illustrator file. I used this image along with the pen, shape, and text tools to trace the aerial image. I used green to represent parks and blue for lakes, for a discrete background I used an yellowish hue to help represent developed area whether residential, commercial, or even industrial. This project took a long time simply because I wanted to be as detailed as possible without cluttering the map and I wanted to label all relevant features in my hometown of Richfield. I’m pretty proud of the outcome of this map since I put a lot of time into it.
Carolina Choropleth Map
This assignment required that we make four choropleth maps using an equal interval classification and a quintile classification of population data in percentage or in total amount. This assignment really could have been done much faster using ArcGIS but we had to use Adobe Illustrator to individually color each county accordingly to it classification. This process took an unbearably long time. We got these results by using Excel to manipulate and organize the data into percentage, quintile, or equal interval sets. It was pretty interesting thinking that people are beginning to identify as having an “American” ancestry. Overall, despite this taking an annoyingly unnecessary amount of time this map was fun to interpret and display the data. I used “cool” colors to represent the data and a warm orange color to contrast the maps, Also I added some patriotic stars to add a little flare to the map. All data was gathered from the US 2010 Census.
Proportional Symbol Map
This map required that we find data and map it using proportional symbols. I got my information from the Minnesota DNR and got the Minnesota map from the US Census Bureau. I transferred the DNR data into excel and organized them proportionally by taking the percentage. I then was able to transform my symbols in Adobe Illustrator to the matching percentage value. I used a blue background for Minnesota and a contrasting orange for the symbols.
Bivariate Symbol Map 
Our bivariate maps required that we find two relatable features and map one using choropleth methods and the other using proportional symbol methods. I choose average annual snowfall and state population. I got my data from the US census Bureau and a website called currentresult.com. I chose a two toned color scheme for my choropleth map, the cool blue and green hues help represent cold temperatures and snow and the warmer tone of an off white help represent data where there is little to no snow yearly. For the symbols I chose orange and slightly transparent because some of the symbols had to be larger than the state in order to distinguish them all. One of the problems I encountered for this map was fitting everything on the page and finding an appropriate size for the proportional symbols.
GIS Proportional and Choropleth 
For these two maps we were able to make a proportional symbol map and a choropleth map using a simpler method in ArcMap. For the first map (choropleth) I decided to map the senior citizen population and see if there were any noticeable patterns across the united states. To do this we went into the properties for counties and in the symbology tab I chose to map the percentage of age 65+ normalized by total population. I set a color scheme and it was as simple as that! For my second map (proportional symbol) I wanted to see where most of the kids in the united states lived. This process was similar to the choropleth map but I normalized it by square mile to get population density and I set it to be expressed using proportional symbols. Data and map were supplied by ESRI and the US Census Bureau.
GIS Mapping Data
This exercise was geared towards the completion of a map depicting percentages of Whites (European Americans), Blacks (African Americans), Asian Americans, and Hispanics/Latino(a)s in an American city of my choice at the census tract level. I choose the city of Boston to map these percentages. For this assignment we were given a map to zoom to our desired area of interest and from here I added three new data frames of the same scale and position as the first one by copying and pasting the first. I was able to map the percentage of each “classification” by normalizing by total population and choosing a unique color scheme for each representation. I used a light grey background for the neat line to help bring attention to the colors of each map. I had a little difficulty with finding a satisfying layout for this assignment trying to fit every element in an appropriate place on the document. Eventually I found one that was satisfying. Data was retrieved from the US Census Bureau and the map from ESRI.
