Final Project Rough Draft
November 30, 2010 9 Comments
Rough Draft Layout for all to see. It printed out very nicely at Kinkos on a white card stock (and it only took thirty minutes!).
I focused my argument on how going from an edge city to a public transportation town forced new cognitive and spatial ways of thinking, causing me to associate more with landmarks (or what I call imaginative landmarks) through a process of cue learning (association with landmarks) as opposed to viewing the landscape as one region and associating only with routes (as from the interior of a car). This helps argue for more pedestrianized cities in the US by showing the transition from one to the other is possible, by highlighting the benefits of a diverse transportation city, all while escaping the clutches of the automobile.
My maps are mostly about how I perceived my new urban environment. I tried to highlight how it appears in my head through metro transit, bus routes, and cycling, keeping it all very personal. As Dan pointed out, Ortelius is a great program, and I would recommend to Dr. Petrik to go ahead and devote a class towards it in the future. Non-Mac users may still want to explore it in the Mac lab. I would have been lost without it.
I kept my design fairly simple. Lindsey and I thought that it would work best on a simple white background, more in tune with the metro aesthetic. I was able to get a font call Futura from a friend that is the basis for the London Underground font, so it very closely resembles the very plain yet recognizable sans-serif font that the WMATA uses. I tried to follow CARP (contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity) as closely as possible, not skewing too much in crazy design mode. The first two pages almost mirror each other, while I tried a bit more image-heavy design on the third page (similar on the fourth page as well).
Anxious, yet excited to receive some constructive criticism on Thursday in class. Can’t wait to see everybody’s work!
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Just got a chance to read through your whole project. Great maps done in Ortelius! Makes me think about becoming a MAC user. I agree that these colored maps work best on white paper. I think a colored stock would make them harder to read.
Thanks Ruel. I maintain that Mac/PC is still about preference…but I also have to say I’m very glad I switched. I find the interfaces and the features really facilitate my work.
But yes, Ortelius was extremely helpful. As Dan pointed out, it basically does what Illustrator can do, just much easier and more streamlined.
Being just back from LA, I highly appreciate your comparative analysis of how commuting can change your way of viewing space. Also, I must say that despite all the warnings, LA public transportation is rather diverse and good. It is just the fact that most o the people there drive, so they don’t know what is it like to use public transportation. Of course, there are places where you couldn’t go without a car, but for most of the time, it is possible to get by without any car.
I agree, and I wanted to argue that the transition from one end of the spectrum to the other is possible. I think American’s still have a stigma about public transportation, and see the autonomy afforded by cars as outweighing any potential benefits of trains, buses, or bikes.
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I really like your project so far. Your maps are colorful without being extravagant, and your layout (for the most part) works really well. One thing that I did feel uncomfortable with was the way in which you phrased your captions. They feel very incomplete most of the time, as though you hadn’t finished voicing the thought behind the caption. Additionally, I would consider moving the caption for the last picture elsewhere. The placement below the bibliography means that it really isn’t inside the space of the text, and it feels odd. I’m not sure where you could put it instead, however.
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