Map Composition and Organization

This is my map for this week's assignment for Map Composition and Organization.    I tried to think of a creative way to incorporate all three maps, so I chose to use the US layer as an inset layer (I shaded Florida).   Then I used the map of Florida to be an anchor to a callout box that showed the choropleth map of the percentages of the various counties.
I still feel much more comfortable with ArcGIS than I do with Adobe Illustrator, but I am hoping to approve a little bit each week.
Here is my map for the assignment:

And here is my Project Summary:



1.     Process Summary Description

1.       Read entire lab procedure first
2.       Watched the “Using Fill and Stroke Colors” video
3.       Experimented (without saving) with the Fill and stroke tools on some text.   No luck in selecting a county and shading it but I think that is what the lab will teach.
4.       Watched the “Working with Groups and Layers” video.   This one was interesting, especially the isolation mode.   I think the key to getting comfortable with Illustrator is going to be repetitive use.
5.       Watched the using “Kuler and Illustrator”.    Now I know why they call it “Kuler” !    Hopefully this will REALLY help someone like me make better color choices for his projects.
6.       Experimented with the Kuler extension without saving anything.   I love how you can upload a picture and have it match a color scheme.
7.       Copied the lab files from r: drive over to S:\Cartography\Cartographic Design
8.       Started Illustrator and opened the florida_hispanic.ai file
9.       Asses the resources that have been given to me.   These include:

Map of US

Map of Florida

Choropleth Map of Southern Florida – Represents total Hispanic Population based on the 2000 census

Scale Bar

Legend

North Arrow

10.   Examine the purpose of the map: Attempt to illustrate the “Total Hispanic population of the state of Florida based on the 2000 US Census Data”.
11.   Set my “Edit…Preferences” to use “inches” instead of points
12.   Added the rectangle to the project (will be the neatline)
13.   Set the “Fill” to None using the skills learned from the video.
14.   Created a new “Neatline” layer and dragged the selected item over to the new layer as demonstrated in the video.
15.   Added the Title and put it in its own layer
16.   Added the Data Source, Created By, and Date and put in its own layer.
17.   Cleaned up the Legend by removing the word “Legend”, making sure all was lined up, and removing the 0’s from the percentages.
18.   Next I want to use the Kuler tool to select a good color scheme
19.   Tried to determine the best way to incorporate the various map elements.
20.   I eventually came up with the idea to try to make the choropleth map look like a callout of the other map and use the USA map as an inset map.  Due to my lack of graphical talent and skill with Adobe Illustrator, I am not sure how well I pulled this off or not.
21.   I wasn’t as adventurous with color choices because I am still struggling with Illustrator.  This week I hope to watch more of the illustrator videos.
22.   Turned in assignment to dropbox and posted on my blog.