This week's Cartographic Skills lab introduced us to the somewhat specialized flowline thematic map. As described in our text, this style of thematic map is used less often than the others we've worked with, yet it may most effectively and efficiently express data showing movement. This movement may involve people, trade items, ideas, animals, or virtually anything that may be mobile. While good at communicating such data, the design of flowline maps can be a problem; creating easily interpretable flowlines without cluttering the map and obscuring features can be a challenge.
To create our flowline map, we were given immigration data and two basemap options to work with in Adobe Illustrator. We were to decide on the size of the largest flowline and then calculate the sizes of the smaller flowlines based upon the regional proportion of immigrants. Beyond simply creating the flowlines, however, we were to experiment with different effects in Illustrator to give the map a more professional and unique polish. For my map above, I applied drop shadows to the flowlines and legend, inner glow based upon continent color to the flowlines, rounded corners to the legend and neatline, and (based upon a suggestions in the lab instructions) placed the origins of each flowline within their respective continents.
The main challenge of this lab was getting the appearance of the flowlines just right. It took several attempts to get each one to "flow" from origin to destination without sharp edges and without obscuring features. Additionally, I am always tempted to spend too much time in Illustrator experimenting with different effects. I am never completely satisfied with my end result; I always believe I could spend more time working on a particular aspect of the map. However, I must cut myself off at some point or else I would never move on.
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