While I wrote about the Archie’s Press Portland map for the “Histories” assignment, I will use this post to expand on more design principles used to visually organize information on the map. I find this map extremely unique due to it’s extremely abstracted representation of the city. Despite this simplification, the design decisions are very deliberate in organizing the city by how native Portlanders view it and representing their conceptual model in a very unique and beautiful way.
Contour Bias
This first principle speaks to the designer’s decision to abstract the borders of Portland and turn the city and its neighborhoods into a perfect circular shapes. According to the principle of contour bias, “people prefer objects with contoured surfaces over objects with sharp angles or pointed features” (Tara Suan’s Post on Contour Bias). As this map is decorative, one may argue that its circular figure is more inviting and pleasing to view on the wall than one where Portland’s jagged borders are represented in detail. I personally find the the circular shape to be extremely unique– it was the first thing that caught my eye among the quirky gifts of a SE Portland gift shop.
Hierarchy
While the map’s circular form is visually pleasing and interesting, it also helps to organize the city into different “slices” like a pie. Each slice is representative of a directional quadrant– Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), Northwest (NW), Southwest (SW). Native Portlanders actually use these directions when describing the locations of things in their city, and this hierarchy represented by slices helps organize their city into “simple and visual structures” (Daniel Lau’s Post on Hierarchy).
Highlighting
The Archie’s Press Portland map uses a bold, teal-blue circle to designate downtown and call attention to “this specific area of content” (Joseph Hornig’s Post on Highlighting). Downtown is typically the center of activity in cities, and maps often times provide expanded detail for these areas. This is done here uniquely with the simple and striking use of color– we’re drawn to this area immediately. However, it does not clash with the other elements as its color is consistent with the rest of the map.