Challenge 2

Variations on a color ramp

Author

Ian Spangler

Published

September 15, 2026

Assigned Due Submit

9/15/26

9/22/26

Canvas
Note

Before you proceed, don’t forget to create a workspace for this assignment! You probably don’t need me to keep banging this drum but I am going to do it anyway. I recommend saving your ArcGIS Pro project something like challenge02_variations-color and saving it under \\hemisphere\geopower\students\GEOG248\yourname.

Challenge scenario

Making maps, and especially designing them, requires that you let yourself be inspired. In this week’s assignment, you’ll map the same data in three different color ramps, all inspired by the same piece of media. That piece of media could be a famous painting, personal photograph, album cover, or still image from a film that you love. Whatever visual media you choose, you’ll use the website HTML Color Codes to upload your chosen image and derive a central color ramp from it. Then, use the colors you’ve found to map the same data three ways:

  1. Monochrome
  2. Complementary harmony
  3. The full color ramp

You can map whatever data you like, but I’m suggesting that you use the FY 2024 zipped CSV file about public libraries in the United States, gathered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This survey contains a rich variety of data that can be easily mapped in familiar ways (e.g., categories, choropleths, bivariates, graduated symbols). The survey contains lats/longs for each library, but you’ll probably still have to join the data to Census zones, counties, or another areal unit to finish the challenge.

Considerations

Make use of the things highlighted in Lab 1, including:

  1. Using guides/rulers and snapping for a consistent, standardized layout
  2. Blending modes and transparency (e.g., the “fade” effect, blending labels against features)
  3. Manually editing color stops
  4. Save colors to a style
  5. Exporting legends/labels to annotations/graphics for simpler editing
  6. Locking map layers to prevent them from being unexpectedly dragged

This assignment is meant to focus on intentionally thinking about and managing color, so don’t get too caught up in crunching data if you can avoid it. Also, check out some of these maps from the MonoCarto 2019 competition, especially useful for inspiration with your monochrome maps.

Requirements

Your final submission should include a layout (oriented however you like, but probably on 17x22” or 11x17”), uploaded to Canvas with the following elements:

  1. Your visual inspiration should be included somehwere in the final layout
  2. Three maps, each one:
    1. laid out at the same scale
    2. designed with a different color ramp/scheme
    3. showing a different attribute/relationship within the source dataset
  3. Sensible data classification and symbology
  4. A simple base map of your own creation
  5. Labels, where appropriate
  6. Standard map elements including:
    1. A title for the entire layout
    2. A smaller title for each map
    3. Legends
    4. Data sources
    5. Explanatory text, where appropriate

The layout will be asssesed on things that we’ve discussed so far in lecture and concepts expressed in assignments: an obvious intellectual/visual hierarchy, suitable projection/coordinate system, appropriate basemap, intentional symbolization, and (most important today!), attention to color detail.

Requirements and deliverables

Assigned Due Submit

9/15/26

9/22/26

Canvas