Week 9 - Flow Line Mapping

For this lab we returned to CorelDraw, as it is the easier option with which to create flow line maps.

Our goal this week was to create a map showing the flow of immigration to the United States in 2007. We we were given two options with which to present our data - either an overall worldview map showing flow into the United States, or to show disembodied continents surrounding the U.S. (still with rates of flow into the U.S.). Either way, the goal was to effectively place curved flow lines without covering up other features. Other map requirements included a choropleth map of the United States showing percentage of immigration per state, and two special stylistic effects applied to the overall map.

The flow map.

Technical Details

Let's start with the main focus of the map - the flow lines! These were created using a Bezier tool; the colors were then changed to reflect their host region, and a drop shadow effect was applied to make them stand out even further. I will admit that I let the idea of working with the Bezier tool get to me - but once I practiced with it several times I kind of got the hang of it... so much so that I incorporated the Bezier tool for my flow line legend.

The drop shadows were only one of my 'special' style effects... the other big one was the extrude effect on the United States. I had wanted my U.S. choropleth map to stand out a bit more and I ultimately decided on using the extrude function. I say ultimately because I had originally started to apply a drop shadow effect... and it didn't work out. Plus I already had drop shadows for my flow lines, so that probably would have been overkill.

To complete the extrude I had to first draw a quick outline of the United States - there was simply too much going on with my map depiction of the U.S. for the tool to even work, and going line by line trying to figure out which one represented the U.S. boundary was not a realistic option. After applying the extrude function the entire eastern seaboard was covered up by the effect. To mitigate this I placed a copy of the U.S. map in a new layer over the original extruded layer. The U.S. still isn't popping out like I'd hoped it would but I suspect I'm on the right path... one day I'll get it!

Other fairly minor effects were applied to the map: text on a path for the flow line legend, different colors for the continents, a two-toned blue circular color gradient for the map background, letter spacing and different outline color for the the region labels, etc. Basically, this map took a while to make and there are still little things I'd like to do with it... but sometimes you just have to know when to say when!