Mapping What Is Already Mapped

Our latest project for digital studio was a map, well no not really it's not the latest, we did it a few weeks ago, I'm just behind the ball on updating! (I'm trying to get better, really)

We all had to map greater Ann Arbor and get a few specific roads (the main ones pretty much), University Campuses, the Botanical Gardens, the Huron River and such. I came into this project pretty skeptical, I mean, 20 students all mapping the same area? I assumed we were all going to have similar projects. I was wrong. Of course, we all mapped the same areas, but all had very different ways of going about it. Glad I was wrong, the end results were very interesting and varied.

Ann Arbor Map (click map for full view)

London Underground Map
I decided to base mine on the London Underground subway system maps. For all the information that they convey, they are deceptively simple, and iconic because of it. I really liked how all they used is color and circles to convey where the tubes go.
I decided to borrow/rip off this idea for my Ann Arbor map. At the beginning and end of every road is a colored circle. Each road has it's own color so you can follow it from it's start to end easily with your eyes. The highways surrounding Ann Arbor (M-14, US- 23, I-94) are thicker lines and bolder, two tone roads to give hierarchical importance. The key clearly explains what the colored areas represent along with the text over the specific areas to specify say, which garden is which.The compass is incorporated into the red and blue Underground logo, which now says Ann Arbor of course.

My map is obviously not intended as a replacement for an actual map of Ann Arbor, mine is way to simple and stylized as a graphic to work in that capacity.

I'm pretty happy with the end result, although it could use a bit of reworking layout wise to incorporate the logo and key overall. They seem to float a bit. Otherwise, I'm very happy with my map.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep posting!