Africa Reference map

The purpose of this activity was to increase familiarity with Adobe Illustrator CS6  and apply the five essentials of map design (figure-ground, legibility, clarity, balance, visual hierarchy) by producing a reference map of Africa that showcases typical map design elements (title, legend, scale, data information, graticule, neat line, labels,  etc.

Requirements:

 - Select 5 or 6 distinct hues (colors) to color the countries of Africa.

- Include labels for each of the countries, water bodies, and physical features listed on the next page.

Discussion:

This map was created using Adobe Illustrator CS6.   Data was obtained by using an online atlas to correctly label each of the African Countries.  Five hues were applied at random to help distinguish the border lines between Countries. Major mountain ranges and rivers were also labeled, but it was difficult to arrange them so that they would be legible while also making sure they were distinguishable from the country labels.  One fix to this dilemma was writing the names of certain rivers along the curvature of the river.  This provided easy distinction to what was being labeled.  Another challenge was attempting to place long country names inside very small countries.  This problem was solved by placing the label outside the country, and by adding  a line from the label to the country.  One issue with this map is that the natural feature labels do not span the entirety of the area that the features occupy.