Course description
This course will introduce the theory and method of how to visually represent your scientific research. Being able to translate complex research into information that can be understood by a wide range of audiences is an important skill that will help you throughout your career.
Communicating your work using different methods helps you to think about your work from different perspectives. Not only will this help you understand your own work better, but it will also give you the tools to be able to explain your work to others.
The skills you will learn in this course are highly transferable to any design project you may do in the future.
Through lectures and workshops, we will cover the following:
- Principles of design and visual communication
- How to apply these principles to illustration and graphic design, which in turn will inform all visual material you might want to create, including; graphical abstracts, presentation slides, poster presentations, journal articles, graphs, data visualisation, project logos, animations and outreach material.
- Best practices for poster and slide presentation design
- Step by step method on how to draw your own research
- Introduction to sketching by hand
- Crash course in digital illustration with mandatory pre-course digital tutorials
By the end of the course, you will have practiced the theory and methods discussed in class by creating an illustration of your own research. Taking your ideas from conceptualisation to final digital artwork.
Completing the digital illustration tutorials before the course begins is mandatory. It is important that you come prepared because we are covering a lot of new skills in a short time and it will be beneficial for you if you already have a foundation to work from.
Course Schedule
Course dates are 28-31 January, from 9:00 to 16:30 each day.
Day 1: 6.5 hrs lectures & workshops, 1 hr lunch
Day 2: 3 hrs lectures & workshops, 1 hr lunch, 3.5 hrs digital illustration
Day 3: 1 hr lecture, 5.5 hrs digital illustration, 1 hr lunch
Day 4: 1.5 hrs digital illustration, 1 hr lunch, 5 hrs student presentation & group feedback
Application
You have to apply through this online form within 15 December.
Software used in the course
- Adobe Illustrator, for those who have access https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/illustrator.html
- Gravit, free vector illustration software https://www.designer.io/en/
Note: If any students are already familiar with another digital illustration software, then feel free to use this program. But for the sake of time, I will only provide technical support for those using Gravit Designer or Adobe Illustrator.
Student’s will need to bring to the course
Laptop
Before the course starts, students will need to
- Download Gravit Designer or Illustrator onto your laptop
- Do mandatory digital illustration tutorials (to be provided)
Final assessment
Students will need to present their illustration on the last day of the course and describe one design principle they used in order to solve a visual problem. It will be okay to show “work in progress.”
Lecturer
Pina Kingman in a biomedical illustrator and animator whose work focuses on telling scientific stories in order to disseminate complex research and promote public awareness of science and medicine. She holds a BSc in Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of British Columbia and a MSc in Biomedical Communication from the University of Toronto.
Portfolio: www.pinakingman.ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinakingman/
Contact: courses@pinakingman.ca
Organiser
This course is offered as a joint effort of 4 Norwegian research schools: CHESS, DEEP, ForBio and IBA.