Help! Commission with SO many labels!

[BreenaNyx]

I am doing my first commission for a DM, and they gave me their Inkarnate map. I have all of the terrain and shading done and have now moved onto labels. But they have way too many labels. It makes the map look so busy. I want to for sure label mountain ranges/lakes/etc, but when it comes to locations, would it look okay to do a key and numbers? They probably have 87 places, including geographical, city, regions marked. It is so busy! Any advice would be appreciated.

[Gamerprinter]

Honestly, even if it makes the map look awful covered in labels, it's what the client is asking for and is paying for, so do what the client asks, even if it makes no sense. I've done commissions that made no sense, but I got paid to do it anyway. Commissions aren't always fun.

GP

[Falconius]

I think number lookups are kind of the worst. Just make the place labels smaller, perhaps put the terrain labels etc. in a layer underneath those. I don't think you have to ask the client if this seems like what they want, but if you are really concerned about it just ask 'em. I would refer to old timey maps which were absolutely packed with labels.
vorropohaiahHas regional maps that usually have tons of labels.

[Tiana]

It is okay to do a key and numbers; at that amount of labels I might. But, I only do key+numbers if the labels are so densely packed they would be illegible when printed. Do the labels before the art and see if you can fit them in without it being overly cluttered. Make sure it's legible at the appropriate print size or viewing on screen size. If so, then just have less artistic features to compensate for the label density. If not, then switch to a numbered legend.

In the end, always do what your client asks for, even if you hate it and it makes no sense. They might be paying you to make it good and be open to feedback and certainly you can ask if they're okay with small labels, a legend, or a decrease in the amount of labels or repositioning to make better sense, but 80% of the time they're paying you to convert their vision to the best of your ability.

I have made one map that's just absolutely covered in labels recently. My client had no complaints about what I consider a ridiculous number of labels. The place as it is, is important to them. They wanted all those labels. So they get all those labels, even if it means a lot less art shows through.