{"id":1359472,"date":"2021-09-24T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T18:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=1359472"},"modified":"2021-12-10T12:04:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T20:04:16","slug":"branding-a-basemap","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/branding-a-basemap","title":{"rendered":"Branding a Basemap"},"author":4491,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[262052,23201,40161,33371,762062],"industry":[],"product":[36581,36551],"class_list":["post-1359472","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-branding","tag-cartographic-design","tag-living-atlas-of-the-world","tag-map-viewer","tag-vector-basemap","product-arcgis-living-atlas","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"short_description":"You are building a map to use with an established brand identity. How do you get to a basemap that is a perfect fit?","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Esri provides you with a slew of different basemaps to work with. Hopefully we\u2019ve got at least one that meets your needs, but is it exactly what you want? Particularly if you are trying to match it to an established brand identity, how do you \u2018massage\u2019 the map to get that perfect fit?<\/p>\n

More than ever before you are now in control of this! The combination of the new Map Viewer<\/a>, and the ability to customize vector basemaps through the Vector Tile Style Editor<\/a>, opens up all sorts of possibilities, including tying the map design to a particular brand. With both approaches the mechanics of this are easy, but there are some potential pitfalls you need to be aware of.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to walk you through a few of these, and hopefully show you how to proceed. Let\u2019s look at some of the issues first:<\/p>\n

Basemaps are complicated!<\/h3>\n

If you have never worked with a basemap before, they include a lot of symbols (The light gray basemap, for example, is one of our simpler ones, but it has around 250 symbol layers). This doesn\u2019t mean you should be scared of it\u2026 It just means you need to be organized about how you go about making changes. Learn and understand some of the shortcuts that are available.<\/p>\n

Basemaps are multi-scale<\/h3>\n

In effect a multi-scale map is a stack of over 20 separate maps that have to work together seamlessly, and it\u2019s very easy to forget that when you are restyling in one view (we all do it!). It can be daunting, but you need to adjust your thinking beyond that one scale.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":1359482,"id":1359482,"title":"Basemap Zoom Levels","filename":"ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","filesize":94626,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/branding-a-basemap\/zoomlevels_graphic","alt":"A graphic showing a stack of 23 layers, with key zoom levels picked out for examples of the map.","author":"4491","description":"","caption":"","name":"zoomlevels_graphic","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1359472,"date":"2021-09-24 14:33:55","modified":"2021-11-22 23:14:28","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1200,"height":519,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2-213x200.jpg","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","medium-width":464,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":332,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","large-width":1200,"large-height":519,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":519,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":519,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2-826x357.jpg","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":357,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg","wide_image-width":1200,"wide_image-height":519}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ZoomLevels_graphic2.jpg"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

The context in which you plan to use the map might make this a bit easier though. You may only need it to function at a few scales – If you are building a store locator, for example, you may only really need it between, say, zooms 8-15. Although we don\u2019t advocate ignoring other scales completely (you never know where people will go when they start exploring an online map), you can be a bit more relaxed outside of your focused scale range.<\/p>\n

Basemaps can be cluttered<\/h3>\n

As I said before, we are dealing with a lot of symbols on these maps. Sometimes, irrelevant detail can get in the way of what you are trying to show. Well, check through our set of basemaps to see if you can find one that handles this for you. If not, then find one that is close, and switch some of that irrelevant stuff off! With the Vector Style Editor, it\u2019s easy\u2026 OK, well you have to be a bit careful about consequences if you plan to butcher the map, but it\u2019s not that difficult.<\/p>\n

Basemaps might be \u2026 BASEmaps!<\/h3>\n

If you are looking for a basemap just to locate important or relevant sites, most of our offerings will work for you. Some of them are deliberately high contrast and bright, however. If you are looking for a \u2018base\u2019 to anchor a more complex subject, and you want the focus to be on that, you\u2019re not going to use strong maps like \u2018National Geographic Style<\/a>\u2019 or \u2018Pop Art\u2019<\/a>. Remember that when you are creating your own version.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":1359502,"id":1359502,"title":"NGS & PopArt Basemaps","filename":"Branding_NG_PopArt.png","filesize":184413,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/branding-a-basemap\/branding_ng_popart","alt":"Samples of the National Geographic Style and Pop Art basemaps showing the LA area","author":"4491","description":"","caption":"National Geographic Style (L) and Pop Art (R)","name":"branding_ng_popart","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1359472,"date":"2021-09-24 14:37:55","modified":"2021-11-18 23:12:08","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1244,"height":430,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":160,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":265,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","large-width":1244,"large-height":430,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","1536x1536-width":1244,"1536x1536-height":430,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","2048x2048-width":1244,"2048x2048-height":430,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt-826x286.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":286,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png","wide_image-width":1244,"wide_image-height":430}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Branding_NG_PopArt.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

So, how can you adjust a basemap so that it ties in graphically with the rest of your brand? Let\u2019s get into some of those mechanics:<\/p>\n

Customizing through the Map Viewer<\/h2>\n

This is the simple way forward, and it may be all you need. Let\u2019s start with the Canvas Map, the easiest of our basemaps to customize:<\/p>\n

Blending<\/h3>\n