Cartographic Design Basics
Overview
This page is a short guide directing you to David Medeiros' cartographic design materials for this week.
Rather than duplicating his workshop content here, you should work directly from his Cartography with QGIS - Module 2 materials, which include both the lecture slides and the poster redesign exercise.
Go to David Medeiros' Materials
That page contains the materials you should use for this portion of the week, including:
- David's cartographic design slides
- The Poster Layout Makeover or Map Poster Redesign exercise
- The downloadable workshop data for the exercise
What This Module Covers
David's Module 2 materials focus on how to evaluate and improve an existing map poster layout. The main emphasis is not on building a map from scratch, but on learning to recognize common design problems and then correcting them intentionally in QGIS.
The materials ask you to think about issues such as:
- visual hierarchy
- legibility
- clutter from unnecessary boxes, frames, and decorations
- title and subtitle structure
- legend clarity
- spacing and alignment
- basemap choice
- locator maps, callouts, and supporting layout elements
In other words, this is a cartographic revision exercise. The goal is to improve the communication quality of a layout by making better design decisions.
What You Should Do
Work through David Medeiros' Poster Redesign Exercise using his instructions and data.
You should:
- Download his Module 2 data from the linked page.
- Open the project in QGIS.
- Work through the redesign steps in QGIS.
- Export your redesigned poster as a PDF for submission.
Why This Matters
By this point in the course, you have already made several maps. This exercise shifts the focus from simply producing a correct map to producing a map that is better organized, easier to read, and more visually effective.
That is a core cartographic skill. Good spatial analysis can still be undermined by weak layout design, confusing legends, poor hierarchy, or distracting basemaps.
Submission Note
Complete this exercise in QGIS and export the final redesigned poster as a PDF for turning in.
Direct Link Again
Use this page as your main destination for the exercise: