I created this map in my Cartography course, for this assignment we were tasked with making creative changes to the U.S. National Park Service Map. We had to change the colors, labeling, and symbolization. 

Focusing on the color, I decided to diverge from the usage of green at all in the map and utilized red/burgundy for the main boundary. I opted with using red due to its complementary nature with green. I also decided to use this color due to the color of the features of the actual landmarks of the park. I decided to make the blue of the rivers, streams, and lakes a darker hue to make them more visible in comparison to the original map. I followed similar symbology for the creeks and streams to show the importance of certain rivers in comparison to the creeks. For natural features, I used brown colors for their labels rather than the black/grey colors to give a distinction between cultural and natural features. 

For changes around symbology, I have created my own symbols for the campground, primitive campground, picnic area, ranger station, restroom, and drinking water points. A main issue I had with the previous icons is how similar they may look at a quick glance. For example, the picnic area and campgrounds are in the shape of a triangle, which at a quick glance could be misinterpreted when looked at a quick glance. To change this I created an icon for the campgrounds that looks at a triangular prism rather than just a triangle. The picnic area also has been changed to have a longer table polygon to not look as triangular as the original. I decided to give color to the Ranger Station flag to make it stand out more, since the originals lack color. The restroom logo has been changed to a toilet to step away from the gender binary to include people who are nonbinary or do not identify as women/men. Drinking Water has been changed to a person drinking from a water fountain to include a bit of color (blue drops) and to stray away from a cup that is hard to distinguish. I changed the roads to Black, Gray, and Brown (smaller size) to create a visual hierarchy in which Black is the darkest and largest, gray is the second largest, and brown the smallest. For the Shuttles, I decided to leave a few stops on the Springdale Shuttle Route. I changed the symbology to be red like the boundary and DEM. I made the shuttle for Zion with the red outline and yellow inside so that it could stand out (given they are both primary colors). I then utilized the same yellow for Springdale but added Purple in the middle since it is complementary. 

Finally, the labels were changed to create a visual hierarchy while also making the words stand out from the features. I attempted to create a similar layout of the fonts much like the original but changed the ways in which they were displayed. First, for the title I decided to take up less space and create a color gradient. I also added the compass to show True North as the “O” after seeing a map on LinkedIn that did something similar and liking it. I changed natural features to be depicted in serif fonts, when the original uses san-serif. I prefer to use san-serif only when depicting cultural locations such as cities, street names, and shuttle stops. I tried to use only 3 different fonts throughout my map and altering their look through color, size, making them bold/italic, and adding a halo around it. 

I believe that NPS should incorporate these changes to their maps in order to improve more rapid readability. Icons differing in shape and occasional color allows for faster readability. I would also suggest expanding from a green color scheme to a color scheme that fits the natural features of the park at hand. I believe that a Reddish Brown or even burgundy fit the overall aesthetic of my selected park. It allows for more creativity and a new look for the map.

Many features were digitized by me following a georeferenced map from the NPS website. Additionally, I created an interactive map to showcase this National Park, which can be accessed through this link.