CorelDraw, Graphic Design and Losing Time

Graphic Design is a skill I greatly admire, but one that I have no formal training in- I have used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in GIS positions I've held, but I am entirely self-taught.  For this reason I found this week's assignment, using CorelDraw to modify a basic map, quite intimidating.  I must admit, however, that I had forgotten how easy it is to slip into the "flow" when creating and editing a design project, to lose track of time, and experience the satisfaction of attempting to tweak something to (relative) perfection.

 

This was the final product of my efforts, and I am a little embarrassed to admit how much time I spent creating and modifying the above map.  (it was a lot.  I spent a lot of time.  Let's not worry about exactly how much.)  It wasn't that it was difficult, per se, but that it's easy to fall into kind of a trance-like flow of moving and re-sizing, changing colors, etc.  

I feel satisfied with the above submission, but am interested to see what kind of grade I receive for it.  I also enjoyed working with CorelDraw, as I found it similar enough to Adobe Illustrator that I was able to pick it up easily.  Overall I was relatively pleased with all aspects of this week's work.