Here's a map I finished last January. The map depicts a fictional region set in Finland, and it was a commission for the University of Vaasa, to be used in a simulation course in the Regional studies. The map is hand drawn and lettered to A3 sheet using Micron fineliners and Promarker for the water.

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This was a surprising but fun commission. I happened to talk with a university teacher from Vaasa, and he realised I could make a new map to their course. They had a very simple map they had been using before, which I used as a base. As we agreed with the client, I kept most of the place names and roughly the relative sizes and locations of the municipalities, but otherwise I got free hands with the map. I rotated the region, relocated the municipalities and added rivers and lakes, and some more villages and municipalities, and added a small map showing neighbouring regions.

It was really fun to design and draw a fictional place which would also be very useful. The students are now using this map to study regional planning through simulation, including planning transport connections, local economy and the effects of sudden changes in the surroundigs.

The appearance and layout of the map is based mostly on its use. It had to have white space to allow drawing new transport connections and other notes, and because it will be presented a lot in powerpoint slides, the lines had to be clear and simple.

Personally I'm quite happy with how this turned out, I think my favourite part is the additional map in the bottom right corner, the generalisation when changing scale worked out nicely.

I'd be happy to hear your thoughts too!