LAKE SUPERIOR TIME + SPACE MAP

This is a comparative poster of Lake Superior’s water levels in 2023 and in average over the last 35 years. The poster shows a topographic map, a massive grid, and the bones of a line graph. I have always found topographic maps to be very interesting to look at so I knew I wanted to include one into my piece. I began thinking with varying shades of blue to represent depth, but turned away from that thinking it was too obvious. The color palette became a twisted ROYGBIV which is more eye-catching and intriguing for the viewer. After looking at some inspiration, I was moved to overlapping lines of each depth rather than solid shapes on top of each other. These overlapping lines not only add more movement in the piece, but they also allude to the fact that there are no clear markings in Lake Superior stating the change of depth. Rather than including a key that is separate from the poster, the varying depths are highlighted in their respective colors in the grip on top of the map. This massive grid spans from number one (bottom line) to 1,500 (top line). The deepest part of Lake Superior is measured at 1,333 feet. For aesthetic purposes and the fact that the earth is ever changing, I did rows of 50 to show just how deep Lake Superior can get. The average depth of the entire lake is 601.1 feet. The line of 551-600 is centered with the topographic map. Above, on, and below that line are the names of months. The less transparent months represent the numbers of 2023. The more transparent months represent the average numbers of the last 35 years. Each month increases or decreases 0.5-1.0 feet. The name of each month hovers on, above, or below the 551-600 line to represent this change of average depth. I chose the typeface Whitney SC in Medium as I think it is simplistic but contemporary enough to support a poster with this much information. The black background accentuates the bold colors of the topographic map and white text that spans over the whole 45 inches of this poster.

2024 / Typography, Data Visualization, Research

INSPIRATION, SCREEN WINDOWS