Learning to Map (& Create)
If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you've been seeing a lot of hand drawn maps recently.
After some wonderful connections made at Alt Summit, more connections and an online travel blogger meet-up, and I found a post by Erica from Wayfare Magazine about an online Map Design class taught by Anne Ditmeyer of Pret-a-Voyager via Skillshare. I've always had a love of maps and had been considering delving into creating some map art with another project; 30 Days of Lists. So I jumped in and I'm loving it!
Skillshare is such a great platform to learn from both the instructor, your other classmates, and added plus - it's economically friendly. The Map Design course is 3 weeks long and includes recorded video lessons from Anne, lots of linked resources, and weekly assignments. So far it's had my head spinning with new ideas, opportunities, and projects - it's been a significant (and very needed) creative jolt for me!
With two weeks down, it's time for me to start considering my final project and that's where I'm looking for your feedback and your ideas! So let me show you what I've been working on so far...
My project is based of the itinerary we took for our road trip through New Zealand; you can check out the full post here. For my first round of hand drawn maps, I started out simple. Experimenting with how to label the stops and how to show the route itself.
For second round of hand drawn maps, I tried including more information on the stops, locations, and what to do in each one.
This past week we started integrating digital tools into our maps. I had one of my hand drawn maps scanned and then added the rest of the elements to it using Pages (Apple's page layout software - which is much less expensive than InDesign).
Now I've got a week to come up with my final project. I'd like it to have a foot in both worlds, hand drawn but enhanced with digital tools. I want to create a map to share our road trip and to inspire wanderlust in others. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you'd like to see in my final map!
What do you like in my maps so far? What's missing? What do you want to see more of?
