The third annual One City Marathon in Newport News, Virginia will take place this weekend. Jonah Adkins, the city's most famous cartographer designed a very nice map of the route.
After numerous tries, he settled on this simple two color scheme. These are two colors I would never choose to mix (the Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols color scheme) but it actually looks great. The map also has way more detail than is necessary (every building!) but these details are faded out enough to not distract from the focus on the map while also adding some lovely texture and character. Edward Tufte, with his focus on using as little ink as possible would not approve but I do.
Other nice features include clear mile markers, subtle text masking and a nice gentle mask along the coastal features. Also there is an elevation profile at the bottom.
Here is the whole map.
Jonah also created this animation showing the different designs he considered. I think the final version is by far the best and I like that north is up, as opposed to some of the rotated orientations.
Unfortunately the marathon organizers are not using this map, instead going for a lame Google Map with line on it-and no further detail.
Other nice features include clear mile markers, subtle text masking and a nice gentle mask along the coastal features. Also there is an elevation profile at the bottom.
