Finishing Strong — The Final Week of the 30 Day Map Challenge

You’ve made it this far; now it’s time to finish strong. The final week of the 30 Day Map Challenge mixes artistic challenges with more technical ones, from revisiting old maps to thinking about new ways to showcase data. Whatever day you’re working on, Cadence can help you polish your work and present it at its best. Here are some ideas about how to tackle the last 7 days.

Remember to share your maps with the hashtag #30DayMapChallenge for a chance to win cash prizes and Cadence Professional licenses.

23–25 November: Process, Names, Hexagons

• Process: Why not dissect one of your previous maps?  Here, you could use Cadence’s Stories feature to showcase your workflow, showing step by step how you created the map from your choice of basemaps, data, analysis and styling. Alternatively, choose a geological process and create a guided walkthrough that showcases that to the world. Remember – Cadence enables you to publish and share stories with a single click, putting interactive content creation at your fingertips.
• Places & Names: Experiment with label styles, fonts, and place names in Cadence’s Annotations feature. Edit your basemaps to remove place names and create your own. Why not explore interesting datasets such as the Ordnance Survey’s Vernacular Names Tool on the OS DataHub?
• Hexagons: Let’s celebrate Hex visualisations. Cadence has a range of in-built joining keys to simplify data visualisation against standard geometries. Why not try our in-built hexagons?  Link data by dragging and dropping it into your project files, or edit our pre-built GeoJSON using the Annotations tool.

To download our hexagons GeoJSON, click here:

26–28 November: Transport, Boundaries, Black

• Transport: Cadence is packed with UK transport data and tools. Why not explore our in-built DataBank, filtering by category to get started quickly. Alternatively, why not try our LCWIP Template – this template will instantly provide a range of pre-curated data for Local Authority Districts in the UK. Learn more about templates by clicking on the button below:

• Boundaries: There are numerous ways to investigate boundaries in Cadence. You could create political maps with custom GeoJSONs or choropleth maps using our easy-to-use visualisation options (for more details on choropleth maps see our blog: “What is GIS” here).

• Black: A perfect excuse to explore monochrome maps. Cadence’s styling options allow you to easily choose black-white colour scales and explore contrast in your maps. Alternatively, why not create a story using a different colour scheme, making use of the night and dark basemaps?

29–30 November: Raster & Makeover

• Raster: If you have not used raster data yet, then today is a great opportunity to do so. You import raster data by just dragging and dropping it into the files within your project. If you’re interested in learning more about raster data, then we also have free training sessions to help you.

• Makeover: This is a great opportunity to go back through everything you’ve created over the last 30 days. Why not find one of your favourite maps and use Cadence’s styling and layout tools to give it a new look and feel?

Last week was about reflection, polishing, and pushing your skills further. Finish the challenge strong and remember, every map you share helps inspire the global mapping community.

Whether you’ve created one map or completed all 30, congratulations on taking part in the 30 Day Map Challenge! Every map is a step forward in learning, creativity, and confidence — and we hope you’ve discovered new skills, fresh ideas, and better ways to create and share maps online. Most of all, we hope you’ve had fun exploring what’s possible with Cadence and the brilliant mapping community that makes this challenge so inspiring.