Posts

Crastina Column, June–Aug 2017: “Being a proud intermediary” by Fredrik Saarkoppel

“I’m specialised in understanding three things: firstly the subject itself, and secondly the perspectives of the two groups that I serve, i.e. senders and receivers.” So says Fredrik Saarkoppel, Swedish freelance illustrator with many…

Slide design for dummies

What makes a clear and visually appealing presentation? Toon Verlinden from "The floor is yours" shows an extreme makeover of power point slides, demonstrating a few simple design tricks that work wonders. This post has been originally…

What Scientists Can Learn From Designers (Matt Carter, May 2015)

According to neurobiologist Matt Carter, scientists often do a poor job at designing for example articles, scientific posters, and talks. But there are many core communication skills that could rather easily be acquired from professional designers.

The-best-poster-ever-made interview: James O’Hanlon, Macquarie University

I was quite delighted when I stumbled upon the research poster below the other week. For years, I have searched for the Holy Grail of research posters, and suddenly it was there, designed by the Australian zoologist, researcher & science communicator James O’Hanlon.

Break the mold with a graphical abstract (Luc Cox, February 2015)

Graphical abstracts is one of many ways to adapt scientific communication to a quickly evolving media landscape. Luk Cox, scientific illustrator with a background in molecular biology, has a clear message: it is time for old dogs to learn some new tricks.

Poor infographics adds to the communication noise

Although I am normally an advocate of telling how to do things, rather than telling how not to do them, I must recommend this slideshow from The Guardian’s Data Blog: 16 useless infographics.