Course description
This 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, including: graphical abstracts, posters, presentation slides, illustrations for publication, infographics, and outreach material.
Through lectures and workshops, we will cover the following:
- Concept Development: Which addresses how to take complex biological questions and distill this information into a coherent story, which can then be turned into an illustration.
- Design Theory: Which helps us to understand how to create illustrations that work.
- Poster and Slide Design Theory: Best practices geared specifically towards poster and slide presentations.
- Sketching: Sketching exercises by hand using pencil and paper.
- Digital Illustration: Beginner course in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.
- Support and guidance: Through group peer-to-peer review and brainstorming sessions, and through personal reviews by the instructor.
Learning outcome
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 conceptualisation to final digital artwork.
Application process
Apply within 5 February 2024 using our online application form.
Maximum number of participants 20 persons. We strongly recommend you register as soon as possible.
This course is devoted to PhD students who are members of DEEP as the top priority group, but If there are still some available spots after deadline, other members and staff at the Department of Geosciences are welcome to apply. We have 20 places in the course and DEEP members will have first priority.
NB! The course is not open to external applicants.
Requirements:
Students will need access to:
- Computer
- Mouse or Pen Tablet
- Internet access
- Paper and pencil
Course delivery and software
This course is delivered entirely online via live Zoom meetings and pre-recorded lectures hosted on Teachable. We will also use Slack and InVision in order to collaborate and communicate with each other.
We will use Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape as digital illustration tools. If you are familiar with another illustration software, then feel free to use this, but technical support will not be provided.
Links and instructions to download necessary software will be provided via email before the course starts.
Diplomas and ECTS credits
No ECTS credits will be granted for this course. There is no final exam, but you will need to submit several assignments in order to get feedback.
The 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 a MSc in Biomedical Communication from the University of Toronto.
Since 2016, Pina has held science illustration workshops and courses in partnership with various Norwegian Research Schools that focus on helping research scientists use illustration as a way to communicate their research.
- Portfolio: www.pinakingman.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinakingman/
- Contact: courses@pinakingman.com