Course description
This online 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 research 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 visualization, project logos, 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 Adobe Illustrator or Gravit
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 conceptualization to final digital artwork.
Length & Time Commitment
5 consecutive days (40 hours) + final assessment
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, only technical support will be provided for those using Gravit Designer or Adobe Illustrator.
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.
Lecturer
Pina Kingman is 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 an MSc in Biomedical Communication from the University of Toronto.
Portfolio: www.pinakingman.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinakingman/
Contact: courses@pinakingman.com
Diploma & ECTS credits
If you complete the course, you get a diploma stating your participation, the content of the course and the work effort the course has required. You can apply to your home institution for getting the course accepted as ECTS in your degree. This course is 40 hrs time commitment + final assessment and is equivalent to 2 ECTS credits
Number of Participants ~ 20
Dates: Monday 24th to Friday 28th April
Registration: Closed
Contact: Micah Dunthorn - Quentin Mauvisseau for practicalities.