A client friend of mine, who emigrated from Cuba to America, asked me to design a map to depict the long and risky route taken to get here. The journey was over a decade ago, but the memories remain as emotional as ever. My first thought was to create a “newsy” styled map, similar to those commonly seen in magazines and newspapers. Such maps have a distinctive and recognizable appearance, combining simple and symbols, icons and limited color palette with a journalistic flair. These maps are often used to translate complex issues for everyday audiences. Maps4News is perhaps most well-known for this style of cartography. I’ve always been fascinated with these newsy maps and I appreciated the chance to make one of my own.
