Out Standing in the Field

I stuck with the reds and blues because it just made sense but I used the gradient scheme to provide a softer look than the stark pure colors. I carried this over into all the lines on the map including the neat line.

I didn't include scales. This was deliberate because I didn't consider them relevant to the topic. Also, I chose to use a line rather than a box for the legend because the box cluttered things too much. Alaska was an issue because of the way the base map was created; so, it looks a little striated.

And finally, we should consider selling Alaska back to the Russians and returning Hawaii to its royal family just to make cartography easier.