Sunday, February 6, 2011

The best use of colour in cartography

In class on Monday, Feb. 7 we will be talking about some important conventions for the use of colour in cartography. More challenging are those "grey areas" (well, not literally grey), where you can choose from any number of colour choices. How to pick?!

We will be going over a few online tools that help you to make up your mind, such as ColorBrewer and Color Your Map: fun to play around with and very helpful in assisting you to make wise colour selections.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

UPDATE: SMU is closed as of 11:30am today (Feb. 2)

There will NOT be a lab this afternoon due to the school closure from 11:30 through to at least 7pm tonight. Please see the previous post for ways that you will be able to work on this lab....

Class CANCELLED: Wednesday, Sept. 2

GEOG 2336 lecture will be cancelled today.
I will be posting content related to the theme of "colour" choices in Cartography within the next day. So make sure to come back to this site to read what I post. I will post your next lecture on the p:drive before Monday's class.

For those of you in Lab B:
Please continue to watch the SMU web site "weather watch" section to monitor if the University will be open this afternoon. If the University remains open, the lab will be held (for those who want to attend or live close to campus). If you do not live close to campus and can not attend the lab, you can work on it on your own time through the week. In addition, the Lab A TA has offered for you to be able to drop in on the Monday lab for some extra assistance if necessary. As well, Emma has offered to assist anyone in the lab next week when she is around.
Your lab will be due next Thursday, February 9, to give you the extra lab day should you need it to complete this assignment.
Stay safe and stay tuned!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Font Humour.....yes, it exists...

Watch it here...and maybe you'll be as amused as I was....

What's in a surname?

We are going to be talking about typography in class on Monday (Jan. 31), but first I wanted to share a recent map from National Geographic with you (Feb. 2011 issue). The map illustrates the US with text showing predominant surnames. Some immediate patterns emerge from the combination of the text for the names themselves (e.g. Smith in New England and Garcia in southern California), from a proportional font size (larger fonts for more predominant last names) and colour (e.g. grey font for surnames originating in England versus red font for surnames originating in Spain). This map is fascinating for its subject matter and use of text (typography), but also because of the way that so many map techniques are being employed on one map.

Perhaps even more fascinating from the subject matter point of view, is this site: where you can type in your surname and see the global distribution of your particular name. Fun!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Cartastrophe and Mapping Profanity...

This site is fantastic! Thanks Will, for bringing it to my attention!
From the "About"...

"There are a lot of bad maps out there. They lurk in brochures, on company websites, and in magazines. They confuse, they miscommunicate, and they make it hard to learn anything about the world. Sometimes they leave off Sicily. They’re made by people who have to rush against tight deadlines, by people who are pressured by their bosses or clients to make bad design choices because it “looks cool,” and by people who were thrust into map-making jobs without any training."

Take a look at this map: a map of the distribution of profane words as uttered in "tweets" in the US...the cartographer has asked for critiques...what do you think?