Lakewood

 Client: Family History Book
 Year: 2026
 Software: QGIS, Adobe Illustrator

This map was one of three maps done for a family history photo book. This is the second map in the book, showing the city of Lakewood and a number of buildings and homes that are important to the family.

Lakewood is the city that both parents grew up in so they each have lots of stories and connections. In terms of aesthetic, I wanted to land somewhere in the 40s/50s to give it a nice historic feel that sits at the root of their history in Lakewood.

Using photos provided by the family, as well as other historic and contemporary images, I was able to illustrate all of the family’s homes and buildings of note. I used Adobe Illustrator to do the illustrations and then, having separately compiled everything for the map in QGIS, I combined everything for the final layout in another Illustrator file. I gave the buildings a small shadow to help ground them on the map. I added some subtle stippling to the parks and a thin dark blue stroke to the river and lake shorelines to add to the period feel. The inset map shows the city of Lakewood in comparison to the greater Cleveland area, but was intentionally left minimal to let Lakewood shine.

Overview of map

Detail 01: Local hamburger shop where the couple met.

Detail 02: One of the homes

Detail 03: A church important to the family

Detail 04: Another home

Detail 05: Title and scale

Detail 06: Inset map of Lakewood, in relation to the greater region

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