New Jersey: One of the original 13 colonies, home of famous landmarks and celebrities, and truly beautiful by nature and rich in history. The state of New Jersey is full of historical and iconic attractions, and this map illustrates these emblematic landmarks.
PROCESS
I was inspired to do this project by a tutorial I found online by Jimmy Gleeson who made a map of Australia that highlighted the geographical and manmade structures that make the island so unique. So, I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing, but for my home state of New Jersey. I designed the majority of this project in Adobe Illustrator, and added some finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop. I began this process by finding a map of New Jersey with it's counties, and I traced it, however I made the shapes more angular and geometric. I then began to find various landmarks and icons related to the state, and placed the accordingly to either fill up blank space or where they are actually located. To make these icons, I took images of them and made them two dimensional by using the pen tool, shape tools, and color selecting tool. When finished, I placed a texture over the product to add more depth, especially in empty spaces.
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The landmarks/icons I created were...
The New Jersey State Flag Ford Mansion Glenmont (T. Edison's House) American Goldfinch Washington Crossing the Delaware The Jersey Shore |
FINAL PRODUCTComing into this project, I thought it would be fun and not too complicated, but I actually really struggled with it. Some parts of the state have more landmarks than others, like in the Trenton area, while northern and southern New Jersey don't have many icons that are recognizable. I do think it would have been better to make a map of the United States, or have picked a certain theme, like all the colleges and university in the state of New Jersey. Considering I made all the icons two-dinentional and had to incorporate them in a way that they were still, it was recognizable difficult to stay with a color scheme. The tutorial of the map of Australia looks much more cohesive because of all the natural and man-made landmarks in the country, as well as the diverse terrain. Considering New Jersey is so small and the terrain is the same, I could not incorporate the same elements in my project. I do not think I would want to do a project like this again unless I were to choose an entire country or a state like California or New York, which have icons everywhere that are recognizable.
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