South Poles Converging Time Zones

This was the final map of the year, we were given the freedom to do whatever we wanted to showcase our creativity, imagination, and skills.  We were given certain guidelines and parameters that had to be met, but those were just basic things.

I chose to use this map to explore all the concepts that we learned about maps the entire semester including coordinate systems and different ways a map can show distortion which are area, distance, shape, and direction.  The map shown here utilizes 2 different coordinate systems, one for the time zones and one for the inset map / main map.  The reason for this is because I wanted to show how time zones all converge on to one single point.  As we look at most wall maps, which utilize the Mercator projection, one would think that time zones are all separated by hundreds of miles up and down the globe.  The regular observer does not take time to think that the Earth is sphere so that is not possible.  I color coded each time zone in the key, and it led to the flag mast at the south pole.  I also labeled research stations per county.  Lastly I actually had contours very lightly in the background to give the map some depth and a better look / feel.

Grand Teton revisited

As part of our final project, we were to take a map from earlier in the semester and redo it using the skills we learned throughout the semester.

There are so many differences and improvements here between this map and the original map I made.  First I labeled the contours and used masks to make them show up.  Next the colors are much more vibrant and do a good job of not hiding the most important part of the map which is of course the trails and rivers.  I maintained the same color scheme throughout the map, even in the shadows and north arrow, legend, etc.  Nothing on this map falls off of the border, which looked unprofessional the first time around.  And I used the DRG properly in this map, which is lightly seen in the background.