personal geographies
A personal geography is a map that expresses one’s personal feelings, emotions, opinions, dreams, etc. It is used to express a personal journey or moment in time which can be shared with others. Cartography is the study of maps. Maps can be a visual representation of a journey, place, experience, moment in time, etc. A personal geography is just one specific kind of map that is used to tell a story.
The goal of this project was to study cartography, research personal geographies, and create a map that expresses personal meaning. The only required elements were a cartouche, creatures, legend, paths & places, trap streets, and voyaging vehicles.
I used Pinterest as my main source of research. I researched personal geographies as well as different illustrated maps to get a sense of what kind of style I wanted to use.
sketch
I chose Arkansas as my location. I have always lived in Arkansas so I chose to display the three different towns I have lived in. My map takes the form of a poster. I tried to portray the importance of each place. Arkadelphia is supposed to portray my childhood. Farmington and Fayetteville portray where I feel at home. Jonesboro is where I get my freedom, but also the stress of college. I tried to portray these feelings in my map.
work in progress
My legend contains some of my places. It includes my first job and my current job. It includes 7brew and Canes which are two places I always visit when I go home to Fayetteville. It also includes City Wok which is my favorite restaurant in town to go. It includes Shadrachs which feeds my coffee addiction. It also includes Target because this is where I get my retail therapy if I ever need a book to read, a new lounge set, or a useless home decor item.
I chose to use Illustrator for this project because it is easily accessible to me and what I am most comfortable with using. It also has all the tools I needed to draw, add text, and arrange things.
final map
cartouche and legend
creatures and voyaging vehicles
finished map
mockup
From this project I was able to learn about the art of cartography and personal geographies through our in class discussions and the research I conducted.
