Custom Maps - the progress to a finished piece

I absolutely adore making custom maps.... it has to be among my favourite projects to work on! (Who I am kidding? I love all my projects!) Here is a progression of work through a variety of maps concepts for a large project I worked on earlier this year.

This map project was for the delta area of the state of Mississippi, so the goal was to include a 'Mississippi feeling' in the map. (What's a 'Mississippi feeling'? Don't ask me - but - my goodness - I have sure had fun every time I've been there!)

First, there was this. I didn't make it farther than this point and it was discarded for this project.

It's kind of a pretty beginning map idea, is it not? 

Next was this one. This funky hand lettering had a better feeling.  

Then the place names were discarded and just song titles were used....

Then it was time to add some colour. I thought this was fun. I liked these cool squares for a border - I felt they added a lot of personality to the map.  I really liked this one, with its muted colours.

But then perhaps we needed more texture?

In the end, this was more along the lines of what the finished piece looked like.

This was a fun & funky project.  Here is the finished design!