Lab 6-Choropleth Mapping

These choropleth maps had a few challenges.  Adobe Illustrator is still the biggest challenge, but I think I learned a bit more about managing the layers.  The grayscale map was a little easier after gaining the initial map set-up in map 1, but it took a little bit to work through the Excel worksheet.  Also I learned a bit more about data classification between the two maps and it shows how you can produce a different looking map with classifying the data in a different manner. If I would have had the time, I would have like to pick a different gradient for the classifications in the first map.

Week 5 Lab- Hispanic Population Study

Week 5 Lab-I started getting a little more comfortable with Adobe Illustrator.  Although I think it's a challenging program to learn, I keep learning new ways of doing things and think it's fun. It seems to allow for a lot of artistic expression.  One thing that helped me in this exercise was learning how to use the layers.  Through trial and error and the Illustrator help I discovered grouping and ungrouping, which seemed to allow me to edit the colors and text in the legend.  I also worked with the layer display order.  One thing that I couldn't get to work was the Kuler color selector.  It didn't seem to connect to the internet to review the color gradients/swatches.  I'll keep trying though as it seems like you would have many other color choices. Prior to posting my map, I reviewed a few really stellar selections and would like to try things a little different next time. 

Lab 4-Map Lettering-Adobe Illustrator

 

I found this to be quite a learning experience!  This Lab took up the most time of any tasks so far in the semester! There are so many more things that I would have liked to have done with this map.  I really wanted to turn the oceans blue and the parks green, plus add an exterior border.  I also wanted to understand where or how to access more symbols,  how to draw lines and really know how the color palette worked.  I have ordered an Illustrator book for help in the future.  With that said, it seems like a real cool piece of software and I look forward to really knowing how to use it.

Week 3-Lab-Data Classification

Four Classification Maps
I learned in this exercise that using the different methods can portray the data in different ways and that it is up to the cartographer to make an analysis that is the most accurate for the data.

Quantile Method

The method that I thought was the most appropriate for this exercise was the Quantile Method. This method is based on the number of observations and divides the number of observations between the number of classes. Since this was census data, I felt that the data would have the least chance of being skewed if it was categorized equally among the observations.