Cartography Week 3: Cartographic Design and Gestalt Principles

For this week's lab, we explored principles of cartographic design and Gestalt principles, which we used to make a map of public schools in Washington, D.C.'s Ward 7. Specifically, we focused on visual hierarchy, contrast, figure-ground relationship, and balance in our maps. 

For the schools, I based the symbology on unique values from the Facility Usage (elementary, middle, or high school) of each school in Ward 7 and varied both the color and the size of the symbol for each of these categories. In the main map, the colors of the streets got darker from the light orange Ward 7 streets to the maroon interstates and US highways. The state highways, US highways, and interstates were 2 point lines, and the major streets and Ward 7 streets were 1 point. In the DC inset, the colors of the streets are the same, but all the streets shown are 1 point so as to not distract from the focus on the inset, which is Ward 7. I used an SQL query (NAME = 'Benning' Or NAME = 'Mayfair', etc.)to label only one neighborhood from each neighborhood cluster in Ward 7. My choice of neighborhoods was mostly arbitrary, with some consideration of even spacing of the neighborhood labels on the map. I labeled the Anacostia River manually with curved text, and included an extent indicator in my inset map, which I had been wondering how to do for a while!

Visual hierarchy

To establish the Gestalt principle of visual hierarchy, I made Ward 7, the most important thematic element, the largest, most complex, and most colorful element on the map. The second largest and most visually striking elements are the legend, inset, and title, which provide the necessary information to interpret the map. Base info such as roads, neighborhood names, and the Anacostia River have visual contrast but are smaller and less noticeable. The scale, north arrow, and credits are relatively small, placed in the corners, and do not contrast much with the background, making them fade into the background unless the viewer carefully studies the map.  Finally, the frame and neatline are barely noticeable at all and only serve to give the map a more refined look.

Contrast

I achieved contrast in my map by making Ward 7 and the rest of DC complementary colors (pale yellow and lavender) that establish a clear visual difference between them and center the viewer’s attention on Ward 7. The pale yellow background allows for easy contrast with most other colors, of which I took advantage for the roads, parks, and school symbols. I tried to choose colors for the school symbols that contrasted with each other but had a logical progression and contrasted well with the yellow background.

Figure-ground relationship

I established the figure-ground relationship by making the main area, Ward 7, lighter than the rest of DC and the surrounding area in order to make it seem closer to the viewer. For the points representing schools, I made them dark colors that contrasted with the light yellow of Ward 7. 

Balance

The balance in my layout was based on the shape of Ward 7, which lies diagonally across the map extent. I placed it slightly more to the right to make room for a decently sized inset in the top left. As the second largest element, the inset creates a counterbalance to the large shape of Ward 7 in the main map, which is skewed toward the bottom right. This left two empty spaces on the right where I could place the legend. I chose the bottom right to further balance out the inset in the top left. Of course the title went across the top, and the north arrow, scale bar, and credits fit nicely in the corners.