Seeing The Void

The first-ever image of a black hole required the most powerful telescope in scientific history— eight radio telescopes around the globe, synchronized using a network of atomic clocks. A team of 347 scientists working at 60 institutions in 20 countries analyzed a massive amount of data to produce an image of this galactic void silhouetted against hot gasses behind, demonstrating Einstein’s theory of gravity.

To tell the story of this groundbreaking collaboration, I arranged vector drawings of eight radio telescopes along a curved horizon, their dishes trained on the iconic image of the black hole itself.

Leptin

Jeffery M. Freidman has been at the forefront of studying the biological basis of obesity. Operating below the level of consciousness and “will power, Leptin is an endocrine system that controls appetite and ability to regulate body fats. This discovery paves the way to understanding and treating obesity not as a biological, rather than behavioral problem. For this poster, I envisioned Leptin as a 50’s B-movie monster, in the vein of “The Blob”, or “The Thing.” The Leptin molecule, as shown in a 3D rendering, had a similar shape to a human brain. By juxtaposing this model of this molecule with a woodcut illustration of a brain, the poster tells a story of the control Leptin has over the body’s physiologic system.

Supergravity

This is the only award that I really could not wrap my brain around. Discovered by Sergio Ferrara, Daniel Z. Freedman and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, is an extremely abstract and mathematical theory, which provides a link between Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and quantum physics. In researching related movie posters, I discovered the Polish and Czechoslovakian designs for “Solaris,” a 1972 Soviet film based on Stanislaw Lem’s novel of the same name. Both posters relied on diagrammatic representations, which could be read as references to space-time. I leaned into this kind of iconography, finding a stock illustration of a grid being pulled into a trumpet-like shape. Paired with the name set in Titling FB, being pulled into the vortex, we have Supergravity.

Fire and Ice

David Julius of the University of San Francisco discovered cellular signaling mechanisms that produce pain sensation. Among other curiosities, he found that chili peppers and menthol trigger the same sensory receptors in the nervous system that ordinarily respond to heat and cold. For this poster, I wanted to tell the story as if it were an action thriller, with a touch of horror—after all, pain is scary. After exploring images of chilies and ice, I settled on a red and blue flame motif, into which is layered a subtle shadow of a face grimacing in pain—although I may be the only person who knows it is there. After exploring distressed or expressive typography, I ultimately settled on a sharp geometric face quietly placed in the center of the image, creating tension without being ostentatious. A last-minute copy change to the title sealed the deal.

The Chaperone

This was the most difficult poster in the project to solve graphically. Discovered by Ulrich Hartl and Art Horwich, the “chaperone” protein is a cellular machinery that helps proteins fold into the shapes they need to perform their tasks—which is apparently how proteins function! The chaperone machinery looks like little cellular barrels, with lids that open and close as proteins enter and exit. Hartl and Horwich theorize that as we age, the body’s ability to fold proteins into shapes that work properly may recede, resulting in degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

To tell the story, I wanted to show the process graphically, without using cellular images, which could distract from explaining the concept. In studying classic movie posters, I first looked to Saul Bass, the modernist master of the film title, and his poster for “The Man With the Golden Arm.” However, this homage was just too much of a riff for my taste. Doing further research, I discovered the work of Will Burtin, a German émigré who was an early Art Director of Fortune Magazine. Burtin was a master of designing information graphics, especially around science. His work for the Upjohn company is quite extraordinary in explaining complex scientific ideas to a general audience. I imagined how Burtin might approach this problem. My minimalist solution to the problem paired images of mechanical gears representing machinery with a line that, in a three-step sequence goes from a squiggly mess to a neatly folded instrument, ready to do the cellular job for which it is intended.

Tangled

Virgina Lee has found proteins in the brain that become tangled over time, which may explain how Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, and other neurodegenerative diseases develop. To tell this story, I wanted to show an allegorical tangle with an organic shape, but not go into imagery of brain scans themselves. The image I landed on was of a red rope, knotted into a lumpy tangle,  with several strands protruding. After some copy variations with the name, we decided that the story was best told simply titled “Tangled.”

Magic Wand Theorem

This revolutionary mathematical discovery takes its name from the idea that it might be applied to solve many other advanced math problems, like a magic wand. Proven by Alex Eskin of the University of Chicago, working with the late Iranian-American mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, it addresses a long standing problem: If a beam of light from a point source bounces around a mirrored room, will it eventually illuminate the entire room?

To tell this story, I cast a candle in the poster to represent the single point of light. The theorem itself is overlaid as a textural element. A dark and muted color palette conveys a sense of mystery. Finally, the title is set in Trajan, seemingly the official typeface of Hollywood dramas.  

Bibliography

While working on this project, I did a deep dive into the history and aesthetics of film posters. As I am often inclined to do, my first step was to pay a visit to New York bookstores including The Strand and McNally Jackson Books, and drop a few dollars on books (ok, it was a couple hundred—some people spend money on shoes…I buy books…). I also utilized the library at the Pratt Institute, where I made a discovery that changed the course of one poster in particular.

As I worked through these books, I used a color coded system of Post-It page flags to denote which poster a particular reference might be relevant to.
These are the books that had a major impact on this project: