This map was made to educate the viewer on how many sanctuaries exist per state, as well as the location and size of its largest sanctuary. For this work, I collected data and transformed it into an educational tool that would go on a wall or be featured on a website.
Research
Research on this subject began with research into all presently open animal sanctuaries per state. This process was complicated by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused some sanctuaries in states to close. This required me to often track down official social media pages or websites attached to sanctuaries to confirm that they were still open.
I maintained count of how many sanctuaries existed per state and took note of the largest sanctuary per state as well. An interesting tendency discovered through this research is that often enough the largest sanctuaries in the country came from states with fewer sanctuaries.
During this research, I also discovered that sanctuaries tend to highlight their primary animal of focus, such as birds, pigs, monkeys, wolves, and elephants. I made a note of this specifically in the case of the state’s largest sanctuary.
Process
After completing my research, I developed a map of each state in the country. Here I created outlines of the U.S. states and proceeded to delete the lines, creating transparency between states. Following this process, the map was transferred to Illustrator and then image traced for a cleaner look. Before moving onto Illustrator for good, I created a map background on Photoshop that utilized a sandhill crane photo I had taken. Birds make up a large quantity of the sanctuaries shown on this map, therefore, I felt this was the right animal to show.
The map itself identifies the quantity of sanctuaries per state on a white-to-red scale. That state’s largest sanctuary is labeled and pinpointed by an animal icon relevant to what the sanctuary specializes in; the animal icon is scaled in relation to how many acres the sanctuary is.
Final Production
The map was created both for print and web use:
- 24 x 18 in. page
- Glossy cardstock
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