This design for a map of the province of Valencia, in eastern Spain, is the first in my new planned collection of maps of all fifty provinces in the country.
The overall style and colour scheme combines several design elements from a variety of vintage maps. The typefaces, symbols and line styles are all directly inspired by maps produced in Spain in the early 20th century, whilst the colour scheme relates more to bright, colourful postcard maps that evoke the warm and sunny climate of the country (see examples of all of these below).
The map displays all major cities, towns and villages and the principal transport links between them including major roads, ferry routes and railways (including present-day metro and high-speed intercity AVE lines), as well as principal geographical features including mountains ranges, peaks (with their heights given in metres), lakes, reservoirs, rivers, wetlands and beaches. Variations in land height are represented by simple contours with increasingly darker colour fills.
Notes on language:
The subject of languages in Spain, where a great variety (including Catalan, Basque, Galician etc) are spoken and used co-officially with Spanish, can get very complicated and controversial, especially where maps are concerned.
The subject of languages in Spain, where a great variety (including Catalan, Basque, Galician etc) are spoken and used co-officially with Spanish, can get very complicated and controversial, especially where maps are concerned.
The Valencian language is widely spoken across the province of Valencia, and is co-official with Spanish; however it is most commonly spoken and used officially in towns and regions closer to the coast, whilst conversely Spanish is more commonly spoken and officially used in towns and areas in the interior. Places that are commonly known by their Spanish names have alternative names in Valencian, and vice versa; this map is an attempt to combine and compromise between the two.
The primary language of this map is Spanish, with all labels written in Spanish except for:
- names of towns, villages, comarcas and other localities which are most commonly and/or officially known by their Valencian names, e.g. Torrent and XĆ tiva, instead of the more archaic Spanish Torrente and JĆ”tiva
- names of beaches, which are all written in their Valencian forms; the abbreviation Pl. is used which can stand for either the Spanish or Valencian words for 'beach' (Playa or Platja).
- names of beaches, which are all written in their Valencian forms; the abbreviation Pl. is used which can stand for either the Spanish or Valencian words for 'beach' (Playa or Platja).
The title of the map and the name of the provincial capital are written in Spanish instead of the Valencian form, which uses the grave accent over the 'e', i.e. ValĆØncia.
As is indicated in the project title, this map is concept design and will be subject to modifications; furthermore, I intend to create alternative versions in all Valencian and all Spanish to appeal to speakers of both languages.
A digitally-rendered image of the design displayed in a frame.
Examples of early 20th-century maps produced in Spain which inspired my design. The detailed map of Valencia (right) from the 1926 edition of the Atlas Geografico de EspaƱa published by Alberto Martin, demonstrates the cursive italic text labels for the towns and cities which I attempted to replicate in my design. The example at top left combines both cursive italics with a bold sans-serif typeface.
Image sources: Google, Alamy, own collection.
Close-up details from two examples of early 20th century maps (left: detail from a 1938 map of Spain; right: detail from a 1916 road map of Spain) both of which demonstrate the combination of cursive serif and bold sans-serif labels for towns, cities and other localities which inspired my design. I also wished to replicate the bold clarity of the label placements as in the example on the left.
Images source:Ā https://collections.lib.uwm.edu
Examples of 20th century postcard designs that inspired my map's colour scheme.
Image sources: Google, apetcher.wordpress.com, postcardsgalore007.wordpress.com, Flickr
The boundaries of the secondary administrative divisions, known as comarcas, are marked by light dotted lines and are marked numerically, with the alphanumeric key displayed at the bottom corner in the manner of antique maps.
The design features a bold, minimalist decoration scheme, with a simplified version of the historic escudo (heraldic coat-of-arms) above the main title.āāāāāāā
Designed entirely using Adobe Illustrator.
