GRAPHICALLY EDGY
UNEXPECTEDLY NOSTALGIC

Neuroscience Department Poster

A commissioned piece to make a poster for a Neuroscience Department. Instructions were to include an illustration of a brain and the phrase "scientifically edgy, unexpectedly nutty". This project was so fun, it allowed me to push myself creatively and experiment with new techniques.

Approach

What excited me most about this project was the level of creative freedom that the client allowed. When researching for this project, I gravitated toward the vintage aesthetics that I find most inspirational for my illustration. The title that I was provided suggests something edgy and playful, which brought me to look at pop and comic book art.

Challenges

What proved to be most challenging about this project was getting the overall tone of the poster down. I wanted to add some scientific elements that would benefit a neuroscience office, but didn't want it to come off as cold or clerical.

How to depict that brain was another problem I ran into, I found that neither a completely photographic nor cartooned image made sense. To solve this problem I created an illustration of the brain with high contrast and then added a half-tone texture. This also leaned into the comic aesthetics I was drawing from.

Moodboards

I was inspired by pop art, half-tone textures, and vintage advertising. The goal was to create a piece that would stand out against the dull walls of the department's lab.

black and white sketches

Graphic Elements Key

What proved to be most challenging about this project was conveying the features of the strollers without any 360-degree videos of the products in use. I had to use still images and vector graphics in order to show the strollers' functionality.