Lab 3 Typography

In this lab we worked on typography and we were asked to make a map of the San Francisco Bay Area highlighting certain features.  All features had to be labeled individually with no use of dynamic labeling.  We had 5 classes of features general (city and island names), water, parks, landmarks, and topographic features.  I used two font types’ serif (Times New Roman) and non-serif (Arial).  I wanted to limit my fonts to keep the map consistent.  I used font size and color to show map hierarchy. 

The general features were San Francisco, Sausalito, Marin Peninsula, Treasure Island, and Angel Island.  Marin Peninsula being a physical feature was labeled with a number 12 Times New Roman font colored with a medium grey.  The rest of these features were cultural and were given an Arial Font of 20 for San Francisco to show its importance while the others used an 8 point font.  I gave the cities a halo to set them apart from the other features.

The water features used a blue italicized Times New Roman Font. San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Straight were given font point sizes of 8 while Lake Merced was given a font point size of 6.  This shows hierarchy.  In order for Lake Merced to be visible it was given a halo.  The color blue was just darker than the surrounding water features so the labels blend in while still being legible.

The parks being cultural features used an Arial font of either 6 or 8 depending on the size of the park with a black printing. 

The Golden Gate Bridge being a landmark used an Arial 6 point font. 

The topographic features of Russian Hill, and Noe Hill like Marin Peninsula used a Times New Roman font but with a smaller font size of 8.   I capitalized all three physical features and adjusted the leading and character spacing to widen the words to set them apart from the map’s cultural features.