M2 Typography

 Good morning,

Maps and everything that comes with them can be informative and well thought out as possible, but be lacking in the visual appeal that portrays a message or tells the story on the surface when first reaching the audience. These visual appeal can be difficult to achieve when map components look clustered or even too empty in some areas. That is the purpose of doing this lab was to practice strategies and steps to giving a map the needed visual appeal to portray the right message in the easiest way. The easier the map is to interpret for its given audience, the better its message is. With this specific map, I utilized layers from the class repository drive, or from ArcGIS Online, to give a combined look at Florida's main river systems, its large swamp/wetland areas, and its major cities. After adding all of the layers, I went through each and picked out the information I wanted to be showing without clogging up the map. Then went through and made all of their symbology look meaningful and clean and then did the same with their labels. I then looked at the map as a whole and tried to coordinate color schemes to look aesthetically pleasing while also staying with the topic theme. Three customizations I made specifically were 

1- I made the symbology of the wetland more distinct by using this bright pattern with a sort of wetland/saltmarsh look. I thought this really highlighted the areas being mapped well. 

2- I put halos on all of my label texts to make my labels more pronounced from the background using different shades to accent better with the area of the map. 

3- I customized the wetland labels to fit the tone of a landmark or important  geographic/natural area. The color scheme and angle the words are tilted with is intended to flow with the shape and feel of the area on the map.