Monochrome map

Required deliverables

Three deliverables:

  1. Map layout
  2. Map taxonomy sheet
  3. Design narrative

The static map layout should illustrate an idea about a place with the following constraints:

  1. monochrome (color palette restricted to white or a light hue for paper and a single hue for “ink”, which can grade from light to dark);
  2. data from Open Street Map (or 1 for 1 substitutions);
  3. scale (RF) should be between 1:50,000 and 1:100,000;
  4. size of mapped geography at least 16” in one dimension.

You will also document your design with a map taxonomy sheet and a 500 - 750 word explanation of design decisions (including but not limited to purpose, audience, and media).

The three deliverables (map layout, style sheet, design narrative) should all be in digital format (either .pdf or .png).

I strongly encourage you to keep a journal while you work on this project. Not so much when you work through the tutorials that I give you, but when you start to apply those methods to your own work. Try to reserve a few minutes at the end of a work session to write down what you tried to accomplish, the main decisions that you needed to make, and your thoughts about how your solutions worked or could work better. This running commentary on your design process will likely help you write the short narrative explaining your design decisions that is a required deliverable of the project. Professionally/beyond college, a journal will also help you track and report your work hours and prepare for feedback from colleagues.

You can journal by hand or use something like a Google doc. Ideally, you will also use the journal as a scrapbook to collect pictures of ideas that you can incorporate in your work. Please note that journaling is recommended but not required for this project and I will not evaluate your work on this. You may find that developing a habit of journaling a little bit while your work will save you time at the end of the project and improve the quality of your work.

Map layout examples

The examples below are from MonoCarto 2019 (see also this article), a monochrome map competition organized by the great Daniel Huffman.

Please note that these examples are not restricted to OSM data, but they do illustrate the monochrome palette constraint. I find them inspiring and hope that you do too.

Inland Northwest Washington

Inland Northwest Washington by Sarah Bell

Watershed Flow Map

Watershed Flow Map by Warren Davison

Newport News Green Foundation

Newport News Green Foundation by Jonah Adkins

Appalachian Trail Fold Out Shelter Reference

Appalachian Trail Fold Out Shelter Reference and Journal-Atop Adventure by John Nelson