October 2015 Challenge: The Island in the Sea

[ChickPea]

I like the new frame a lot. I'd thought the old one looked OK (apart from my quibble about the ornaments) but this new one is a big improvement.

My only thought (and this is only my personal opinion, I'm sure others might disagree) is that you might have too many boats now. Not sure. I'm not completely sold on that one directly above North Passage. It's really hard to get a nice balance (I had this issue myself in my last map). Mostly, I feel your map has a really appealing 'cleanness' and minimalism about it, and adding too many elements around the edges of the land mass detracts from that. But, that's just my personal taste, of course. YMMV.

[Chick]

I like the new frame a lot. I'd thought the old one looked OK (apart from my quibble about the ornaments) but this new one is a big improvement.

My only thought (and this is only my personal opinion, I'm sure others might disagree) is that you might have too many boats now. Not sure. I'm not completely sold on that one directly above North Passage. It's really hard to get a nice balance (I had this issue myself in my last map). Mostly, I feel your map has a really appealing 'cleanness' and minimalism about it, and adding too many elements around the edges of the land mass detracts from that. But, that's just my personal taste, of course. YMMV.

About the boats, that was my original opinion too, but leaving too much empty ocean space didn't look good either. I've tried moving the windrose to the bottom as JEdward suggested, but I'm thinking that is making too much empty space at the top that boats need to fill to keep it interesting.

I may try moving things around yet again, still thinking about it.

[snodsy]

We're nit-picking now, but the scale bar's - bar length is the same as the border, I'd make the border units smaller (more). I agree too many boats. Three is always a nice number. Love the compass rose now. You've nailed this one.!

[Chick]

We're nit-picking now, but the scale bar's - bar length is the same as the border...

Isn't that normal?

[J.Edward]

The darker texture looks better.
I still think the compass should be larger.
IslandInTheSea 14.jpg
Tried to show what I was talking about. Maybe it's helpful, maybe not.

[snodsy]

Chick, I agree with J. Edwards on the larger Title, larger compass rose. Making the scale smaller solves the issue I had with the border/scale being the same. Only thing I'd do differently is probably not make the ships any bigger, but just see. almost there!

[Chick]

I've made two variations of this map, the only difference is swapping the windrose with one of the ships. I have a definite preference, but I'd also like to hear from those who have so kindly given such good suggestions and ideas. Which looks better to you?

Variation A:
IslandInTheSea 16.jpg



Variation B:
IslandInTheSea 17.jpg



Thanks for looking and for your ideas!

[Abrian C]

Just choosing between the two, I prefer the rose in the top right. When it's on the bottom, it is close to the scale which restricts the breathing room for either object.

That's my preference!

[ChickPea]

Variation A is my choice. It feels nicely balanced. The thing that puts me off Variation B is the way the scale and the compass rose don't align. It feels a little of out of sync. Variation A shines in comparison.

Which was your preference?

[Chick]

Variation A is my choice. It feels nicely balanced. The thing that puts me off Variation B is the way the scale and the compass rose don't align. It feels a little of out of sync. Variation A shines in comparison.

Which was your preference?

When you say the scale doesn't align, are you talking about the border scale or the travel distance scale? The latter can be moved easily, although it does look better to me on the right, to balance the title/cartouche on the left.

The big problem is that the windrose compass needs to sit on one of the focal points of the rhumb lines, and those are a lot harder to move and have them look good. I gained a huge appreciation for Diamond's use of them when I made one and tried to place a bunch of copies around the seas so they were spaced well and didn't overlap in ugly ways and didn't cause too many close parallel lines and etc.