Here’s a map of the Puget Sound area that I made a couple years ago for presentations to folks in the US northwest. Recently I wanted to work some more at labeling in a 3D environment and found this to be a handy target. Additionally, I thought it would be fun to make more use of the cutaway nature of the map and add some geological interest to the vertical rock edges:
And here’s an updated version where I added more geological/tectonic context:
If you are interested in making one of these, I made a video walking through the GIS steps here. This map was an extension of that sort of thing, but instead of labeling and doing a lot of the manual drawing in the GIS itself, I exported layer elements from the GIS and then assembled/blended/drew/labeled in Illustrator (something I very rarely do anymore, because of the design capabilities in ArcGIS Pro). I thought of this as more of an illustrative task, so illustrator it is.
Here is the bottom-most layer, the 2D overview map that sits behind the 3D diagram to serve as a locator. I exported this as a standalone image, the first layer of the composition.
Next, I exported the 3D block diagram as a separate layer, with a transparent background so I could float it atop the overview layer.
I exported a separate hillshade layer so I could apply various blends: a combination of luminosity (to reduce the darkness of the mountains and oversaturate the colors) and overlay (to boost the contrast and tease out river valley structures and bathymetry). I also manually added some ridgeline highlights to make them pop more in the blended result.
Here is a comparison of the basemap before the lighting work, and after…
Next came the labels. This was a major reason I re-made this map. Sometimes I enjoy just zoning out and dropping labels. I find joy in warping them so they appear to be sinuous 3D elements floating over the landscape. For this I labeled water features along a path and played with a shearing transform to lay them down over the surface. Cities got a simpler, billboard, appearance. Park labels are like billboards but instead placed flat on the surface.
I used Bell MT for all the natural features. I have to admit, at first I thought I was using Sarah Bell’s High Alpine font (as I had in this earlier experiment with isometric mapping) given its “Bell” name, and only later realized my mistake. But I liked how it looked and so I carried on with it. Bell MT looks authoritative and crisp, has a nice blend of chisel and rounding, and useful as a serif font for mapping. City labels are Roboto Condensed.
All labels got a drop shadow effect so they appeared as a physical element in the landscape. A bit later on I added some sparkles to a few of the labels to further that sense of mass, like light is catching the corners of the lettering.
Speaking of, here is the sparkly twinkly layer. These are radial gradients with a bright center that fade out into a darker amber (or blue for water features). They are placed over some ridges or where the water meets land or at the corners of the cutaway. And definitely on some of the larger labels (including the title). I gave some of them an overlay blend mode and some not, depending on what looked best for each.
To quote Joshua Stevens, when I showed him a snapshot of the layers, “every project should have a ‘twinkle’ layer.”
To provide a sense of context and direction, I drew an “N” and edited its path to give it a pointy tip. I dropped one on the 3D diagram and one on the 2D overview. To each I applied a shear transform and shadow so they sit appropriately in 3D space.
I drew the area-of-interest window manually, which was a simple square with a gradient fill and gradient stroke. I duplicated it, and warped it, changed its outline to black, and gave it a blur effect, to replicate a shadow. If course a dropped a couple twinkles on them all for good measure.
I drew some polygons to create the effect of a split in the rocky side of the 3D map. A shade gradient gives it a sense of two layers, one subducting under the other. This, I hope, gives a nice illustration of the two geologic plates interacting beneath the Pacific Northwest and its smattering of volcanoes.
This map has a title and a subtitle, as most of my maps do. Titles should be short. A subtitle is your chance to add a bit of detail. The title is layered such that it appears to be tucked behind the 3D map, while the subtitle sits in front. I liked how this sandwiched the map and gave it a sense of space. An inspiration for this title’s aesthetic is this wonderful airbrushed map by Earl Bateman in 1985. His composition, including the accoutrement, is rich with texture and lighting to give it a sense of mass. So I made my title similarly illuminated. Would I design a title this way if this was a thematic map? Likely, no. Thematic maps in general ought to be simpler, to communicate some data-driven phenomenon clearly and directly. But this map exists only to be an interesting 3D composition, so the title matches that aesthetic. Is it bold and clear and easy to read from 20 feet away? No. But the title is largely unimportant to this map, so its visual prominence is in keeping with its role. Maybe you notice the title, but not before your eyes hit the map itself.
Lastly, I added a radial gradient background because I wanted to lend more visual weight to the left side of the composition, helping to balance the overview map on the right with an implied illumination source. Not! I accidentally drew this while adding what I planned as a solid background, but the radial gradient from the twinkles was still selected and I serendipitously loved the result. Happy accident, my friends.
And I gave the floating 3D map a drop shadow sort of thing using a blurred black stroke.
All together it looks like this. Click to embiggen.
Thanks for following along! I’m going to submit this to the NACIS Atlas of Design. Cross your fingers for me! Also, if you haven’t seen this book series yet, definitely check it out; you are in for a treat.
Love, John