Cell Scientific Journal Cover Designs
Cover Design #1
ARTWORK COMMISSIONED BY MATTHEW R JANES, PhD
I was commissioned to design the artwork for the cover of the “Cell” Scientific Journal by Matthew R. Janes, PhD at Wellspring Bio Sciences for his article that was published in a 2019 issue. He supplied me with an idea he had sketched out of a hand holding a cell ( seen below ). He essentially wanted me to build out this idea into a more engaging piece of artwork. Here are his notes: “Basically it’s a crystal structure of the protein with our drug sitting in it. I want it sitting in a hand, implying "we have a hold on it".
DESIGN DECISIONS
I thought it would make for a more powerful representation of the cell, if I illustrated the hands in a way that it shows them gently holding it, symbolizing how important and how much potential the cell has to developing a drug that could cure cancer. It would also represent giving, how he is passing on the knowledge of his research to the world through his article in the journal. When I ran this idea by him, he agreed. I ultimately chose to keep the color scheme of purple and pink which he had given to me in the artwork of the cell and I added some molecular elements to the background as well as a DNA trace illustration the client provided me from his research.
Initial sketch from client that I used to base the artwork off of
Final Artwork Design
Cover Design #2
COMMISSIONED BY KEVAN M SHOKAT, PhD
I was commissioned by Kevan M Shokat, PhD, vice-chair in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University of California San Francisco and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley to design the cover artwork for his article that was published in a separate issue. The directions he gave me were the following: “My one idea, if it’s workable is based on “The upside down” from Stranger Things. Since Qi found that the cancer causing mutation R201C, makes GDP an activator, and that the pseudohypoparathyroid mutations R228C makes GTP unable to activate, it is like diseases are in “the upside down world” of GTPases…. and somehow stylize the GTP-GDP cycle, ON vs. OFF, kind of rough.”
DESIGN DECISIONS
I started by researching different artwork online for “Stranger Things” and put together a basic mood board ( seen below ) to kick off the ideation process. Since I wasn’t able to read his article before hand to come up with any other ideas to comp up, I stuck with Kevan’s direction of showing the upside down world in “Stranger Things”. I wanted to use bright colors in the artwork to give it a technical and modern look as well as to give nod to the “Stranger Things” reference. I ultimately came up with a few color variations of the artwork for the client to choose from.
Mood board for Kevan’s project
Color option 1: Final Artwork for Kevan’s article for the Cell Scientific Journal
Color option 2
Color option 3
