Polycystic ovary syndrome spread
Medium: Digital (Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop)
Date of Completion: December 2018
Supervisor: Dr. Shelley Wall
Content Advisor: Dr. John Wong
About: A 2-page spread describing the symptoms and biological underpinnings of polycystic ovary syndrome to a lay audience.
ProCess work
1. Writing a Preliminary Sequential Report
First, the pathology was researched and a step-by-step written description of the pathogenesis was written. This included identifying discrete, visualizable steps/stages, main "actors", the scene, time frame, and scale of these events.
2. Studying How to Visualize Typical and Pathological Tissue
Once a concept was chosen, it was further refined iteratively. During this process a list of the visual elements the final illustration would include was created. For each element, the data needed to accurately depict that element and a potential source for that data was listed.
3. Creating Thumbnail Sketches
Using the report and studies, a rough first pass at the narrative and layout was made and communicated through a few thumbnail sketches, focusing on experimenting different ways to communicate the same story. Supervisor and peer feedback were solicited on these thumbnails. This helped inform a few major design decisions going into the next stage.
Image: three thumbnail sketches
4. Creating a Comprehensive Sketch
A more detailed sketch of the final layout was developed iteratively, and feedback was solicited from other student biomedical communicators and faculty supervisor. The comprehensive sketch was then revised, and submitted to be reviewed and approved by both the project's faculty supervisor and content advisor prior to proceeding.
Image: the initial and revised comprehensive sketch (above and below respectively)
5. Creating Colour Thumbnails
Colour thumbnails were also created to visually test the colour palette of the piece. Feedback was solicited from the project's faculty supervisor and peers .
Image: 3 possible colour palettes created for this piece
6. Ensuing Inclusivity; Gathering Feedback from the Public
One specific weakness in available health education material on PCOS I identified is that they typically use exclusive language and symbols. This makes the information not as accessible for all individuals with a uterus who may experience PCOS.
As such, I reached out to the greater public community for feedback and input. I workshopped some visual solutions based on this feedback with other student biomedical communicators as well as my faculty advisor, and shared my results for more feedback with the public via social media (instagram).
7. Digitally Rendering and Compiling
Once comprehensive sketch was approved by the faculty supervisor and content advisor, the finished assets were digitally rendered and then compiled into the final layout in Adobe Illustrator.
8. Feedback and Revisions
Feedback was solicited from the Dr. Shelley Wall, other biomedical communicators, and students, and revisions were made to achieve the final piece (above).