Lake Winnebago Bathymetric Map

GEOG 280 - Cartographic Design

The purpose of this activity is to increase familiarity with Adobe Illustrator CC and apply the five essentials of map design (figure-ground, legibility, clarity, balance, visual hierarchy) to the production of an artistic reference map of a body of water. I chose to map Lake Winnebago because I grew up a short five minute walk from it in the small town of Sherwood, Wisconsin.

I acquired the bathymetric map from a PDF produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and traced it using Adobe Illustrator pen tool. Due to Lake Winnebago’s large size, tracing its details took quite some time. I used the smooth tool to fix any jagged edges and utilized the paintbrush window to give each layer a light brown stroke.

For the city names, most were found on the NOAA base map, but for some of them I referenced Google Maps. I ensured to include every lakeside town, especially the communities that often get overlooked on larger maps. I used the image trace tool for the north arrow and gave the stroke a paintbrush effect. To create High Cliff State Park, I traced the boundary and added a paintbrush effect on the stroke. Regarding the land contours, I traced them from a screenshot. I then included the elevation labels and deleted the strokes behind the text.

I overlaid a subtle texture on the entire image with some transparency to make everything fade together, looking less computer generated. My final touch was adding an outer shadow to the lake and an inner shadow inside the frame boundary. Overall, I kept a simple, vintage color scheme, used only two fonts, and designed the map in a tourist shop style.