CARTOHome

The project began with designing and conducting interviews based on a structured questionnaire to gather significant cultural insights from each student of the 14th intake. Collected data was then artistically transformed into icons representing each student's cultural identity. The process involved detailed sketching and digital illustration. Pictographic elements were drawn in Adobe Fresco and SketchBook, Base Map was obtained from ESRI and customized in ArcGIS Style Editor. For the final design we used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Canva. Also Projection Wizard supported us through the spatial representation.

During the data collection phase, the first challenge was coordinating availability for interviews with each student in which all three group members could participate. Next, during the illustration phase, we encountered difficulties in deciding on the art style and selecting the digital tools that would best help the group achieve the desired outcome for creating the illustrated icons. As a large amount of data was collected, time was key for the illustration part of the process. While developing the maps, challenges were related to decisions about projections, scales, and political tensions. These issues were thoroughly discussed as a group, ultimately resulting in the creation of 23 maps.

We are proud to have created a publication that serves as a meaningful memory of home for everyone during our Master’s journey, especially as we are all far from home. This publication not only allows us to share more about our cultures with our peers, fostering reflections on the rich cultural diversity within our group. Over the past four months, not only did some of the group learn digital drawing from scratch, but all achieved digital illustration results we are genuinely proud of—particularly given the short timeframe and the challenge of designing an average of more than 80 icons per team member.

Through this project, we improved our skills in design software, reaching a good level in Adobe Illustrator, Fresco, Photoshop, Sketchbook, and Canva for editing. We also learned how to edit service map layers to be used as base maps, considering all different regions, scales, and projections, and how to conduct structured qualitative interviews. Additionally, designing and organizing the creation of icons sharpened our attention to detail and problem-solving skills, enhancing our confidence in creative projects.

Future enhancements to our project could involve complementation of the information of future intakes end/or creation an online interactive version of this work.