"A Brief History of...": Creating the Map and Colour Decisions

I wasn't too sure where to start with my Website brief. I knew from the crit that I wanted to use an infographic layout. I also knew that I would need a map of cyprus so that it would be clearer when explaining about different places as well as showing the divide. I didn't want to use a map off the internet so I decided to make my own.

First I screenshotted the google maps view of cyprus.

I then began tracing the outline until I had gone round the whole island as shown below.

I was pretty happy with how the outline turned out, its not perfect but it is obviously Cyprus so does the job.

I thought the best place to start would be the green line, I traced round the map and tried filling in the area, however I didn't think it looked as it should. The line just looks like I couldn't get an equal width so I decided it would be better as a dashed line.

I then began to fill in the mountain areas as this seemed like a key structural area within the map. I wanted to do it through two tones to give a basic idea of the contours. I think two colours is enough, I don't want to over complicate it as it is quite a condensed map anyway.

I wanted to show the mesaoria plain between the two mountain ranges. I decided stripes would be most appropriate because I could then still use two different colours to show the division between the south and the north.

Colour Theme

Before I went any further I decided to sort out the colour theme. I felt this was quite important as it would really set the theme of the map and the project. I used a photo that I took in Cyprus which, I felt, had a good range of different colours. Using Adobe Kuler I was able to get a range of fitting colours

The salmon colour felt a bit too bright in context with the other colours. 

Not a fan of the brown.

Getting there and working better together as a theme.

I think green is definitely needed in the palette.

The darker colour will be useful and would be a good substitute to black.

These were my final two colour palettes, I will use a mixture of the two as I feel they are both appropriate. To me, these colours represent all the terrains of Cyprus.

I began using the green to fill in the northern part of Cyprus.

I decided to make the Mesaoria plain white lines as it was easier on the eye and highlighted the buffer zone rather than trying to hide it. The green, representing the Turkish part of Cyprus and the Pink Representing the Greek side works well together. The colours are complimentary in the fact that they clash, this reflects the relationship between the two sides.