Author: Sarah Bell

Hand drawn Hillshade of mountain near Anchorage Alaska with Knik Glacier
After EffectsAnimationCartographyClimbing

Animated Flyover Map in ArcGIS Pro and Adobe After Effects

Building maps often requires multiple software applications. In fact, I cannot recall a map that I’ve made in the last...
Adobe IllustratorAnimationCartographyUncategorized

Reimagining the John Snow Cholera Map with Animation

Last week marked Esri’s annual User Conference in San Diego, and what a conference it was! It’s always fun to...
Adobe IllustratorCartographygraphic designTutorials

3D Shading & Rendering in Illustrator: A Globe

In a few quick steps, you can give a circle-shaped vector path a 3D-rendered appearance in Adobe Illustrator. I’m a...
Fonts

The High Alpine typeface is available now!

High Alpine Semibold has an unapologetically high ascender with no accompanying adjustment to the x-height. The descender was kept rather short as well, allowing uppercase to maintain its towering command. For moments when you designers feel like reaching ultimate heights, I've added many alternative characters; uppercase crossbarred characters have alternatives with daringly high crossbars, and stemmed lowercase characters have longer-stemmed alternatives. Many further glyphs are included with this font to accommodate multiple languages.
Cartography

A Glimpse of the USPS Landscape with Maps

By the time I publish this, I will have just finished presenting at the 40th annual North American Cartographic Information...
Fonts

The Font is Ready! BellTopo Sans Fonts Design Complete

About the BellTopo Sans Font I designed the BellTopo Sans font, originally inspired by the typefaces on the antique U.S.G.S....
Fonts

Typography for Topography: BellTopo Sans Typeface & Free Font

While making my own USGS-inspired maps, my search never returned the exact type of font I was looking for. The fruitless search was serendipitous however, because it provided the push to make my own. It was designed for map labels that are no larger than 80-100pt, but usually much smaller. I decided to name it BellTopo Sans with the plan to create a serif version.