AMN5

Fifth International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology

 

 

The MacDiarmid Institute organizes an International Biennial Conference that offers a broad interdisciplinary overview of advanced materials and nanotechnology, and provides an exciting forum to discuss new and exciting advances in the field.

 

The logo for this event had to depict the fact that the conference was taking place in New Zealand. It also had to include the concept of nanotechnology and/or advanced materials, which are the main areas in which the conference focuses on.

In order to address these requirements, the proposed solution had a representation of New Zealand created by organic forms, round, curvaceous elements that seem to meld together for a specific purpose. The repetition of these elements can then devise organized structures, by which, the concept of having advanced materials or nanotechnology has been achieved.

Applications of logo and secondary elements on assorted

conference materials. This part of the project was undertaken

by the conference organizers.

From Molecules to MIlk | Interface magazine cover

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on my portfolio over at Behance and realized that there were some projects that I never published on my blog before. So I intend to correct this situation by posting them now. It will be an ongoing process but it should be all here soon.

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology publishes their own magazine where they highlight the latest results to come out of their research. Interviews and special articles on the people behind the innovations are also part of the magazine.

This issue, Interface 21, was a milestone since the magazine went through a complete redesign and I was lucky enough to be called upon to work on the cover. I had to hunt down an old milk bottle from a thrift shop so I could photograph it for both the cover and the article. Fortunately it was only a 10 minute walk down the street and even had the chance to choose which bottle I wanted. The idea was to have a vintage look and the combination of hand drawn fonts and a blackboard texture for the background was ideal for this purpose. The dark background also helped to make the milk bottle and the title to stand out.

Here's a bit of the process the magazine cover went through.

 

The Professor

The first of two cards that I will make to illustrate an article on the MacDiarmid Institute website that talks about the efforts of bringing together the scientific world with the business world in New Zealand. The New Zealand government is promoting the commercialization of science and has set in motion several programmes in order to achieve this.

New illustration for the MacDiarmid Institute, this one is to illustrate the blog entry "The Funding Flood".

When thinking about a concept for this illustration, I remembered the famous print The Great Wave off Kanagawa from the Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai. I made some modifications in order to match what has been written. It's not an exact reproduction of course but I still like the end result. I changed the color of the water so that it would seem like it's a wave of money and the yellow foam represents coins. Maybe that's not very well achieved but I think it still gives you a good idea of what's happening.

Enjoy!

Cooking on the job!

I was asked to take a picture for an article that the MacDiarmid Institute was going to publish on their website. The article talks about a new way they have been able to determine if there's bacterial growth on meat and kiwi fruit in New Zealand. You can read the whole article here.

There were two possible ways to showcase this article. The first one, which would have been the obvious one, would have been to take a picture of rotting meet covered in some kind of bacteria. But who would be motivated to read about something that's oozing some possible kind of goo?

I thought the second option would be the best way. Having a nice picture of some cooked meat presented in a nice way would probably catch people's attention. The article may even be more appealing, if not by the article in itself, maybe by the fact that your brain is acknowledging that there's a tasty platter in front of you, hahahaha... yeah right.

The first place to get all the required material was the fridge of course. A quick check in to the freezer confirmed that I had some meat that just needed to be defrosted. Some fresh tomatoes were at hand and I had some nice mushrooms that were just screaming to be used. A couple of apples were thrown in into the mix and some spring onions too. Things were cooking!

Now I'm not claiming to be a good cook but the result was very satisfying. Not only did I end up having a great meal, I also ended up with a nice picture; two fulfilling results. Both my stomach and my pocket would be full after this little job.

Yum!

Student Symposium 2011

The illustration for this year's Student Symposium organized by the MacDiarmid Institute is finished! It seemed that every time I felt it was completed, I wound find a little detail that needed a bit more of work. There might be a few flaws still but I'm quite satisfied with the end result. If I keep working on this I'm sure that I'll keep finding other things that need to be touched up.

I wonder what next year has in store for me. What will the theme be and how will I be able to incorporate these characters. I think that MESA (The MacDiarmid Emerging Scientists Association) will be in charge of future Symposiums.

Syudent Symposium 2011

W.I.P. Here's the illustration I've been working on these past few weeks, it will be used to identify the Student Symposium that the MacDiarmid Institute organizes each year. On this occasion, the theme of the Symposium focuses on the options that Alumni encounter after focusing on their studies.

The characters depicted here are the same that have been used for the previous Symposiums although there has been an evolution. You can notice that the characters seem more mature, the style of drawing although far from being realistic, is less caricature than previous versions. Elements from the previous years have been used and incorporated in order to have a sense of continuity.

There are a lot of details that still have to worked on before I can consider this illustration as completed, however, I'm really stoked with the result so far. It's quite fun to see how everything begins to fall into place, especially when you only have a rough idea of what you want to accomplish.

Previous Student Symposium illustrations:

The Cutting Edge

$cience

Prime Minister's Emerging Scientist of the Year Award

UPDATE: I had previously posted this entry but I was asked to remove it during the voting process. Unfortunately, Mark wasn't selected to go on to the final round but we're both really happy with the poster anyway.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been helping out my friend Mark Hunter on the design of this scientific poster. He's competing for the Prime Minister's Emerging Scientist of the Year Award... wow! what a mouthful. We didn't have much time in reality since we both were busy with our jobs and what-not and we found ourselves meeting up at lunch time a couple of times to talk about the progress of the poster. We're both quite pleased with the result and hopefully Mark can go on to win the prize.

Working for the MacDiarmid Institute has given me the opportunity to be part of some really cool projects. Even though I'm not really contributing with scientific knowledge, it's quite satisfactory to know that I am contributing in a way through my designs. This poster is aimed at high school students and if at least one of them understands the principle that is being explained, I can say that we did a good job!

By the way, not only is Mark waiting on the result of this competition but he's also waiting to be a dad for a second time any day now. Whilst working on the poster, we were expecting at any moment to get a call from Jillian (his wife), fortunately we were able to finish without any major events getting in the way.

Kudos Mark!

Nanocamp 2011

This is the latest illustration I have been working on, it will be used as a postcard in order to get high school students to attend the Nanocamp event. Events like these are really great since they give kids the opportunity to have an up-front hands-on experience with science. It goes on for a week and it's completely free! There's a selection process of course but being able to see what science can offer you as a career or simply having the chance to actually go into a lab and learn about nanotechnology is just awesome!

The MacDiarmid Institute is really making an effort to reach young people and to promote science in New Zealand. This is just another of their programs that has been very successful.

MacDiarmid Student Symposium 2010

Just finished the illustration for the MacDiarmid Student Symposium. This is the third illustration I've made for this series of Symposiums although only the last two have the same characters. The style of the illustration has changed slightly and so have the characters in order to fit the theme of the current symposium.

You can view the previous illustration here.

$cience

Illustration for the Student Symposium that the MacDiarmid Institute in New Zealand organises each year. I was quite pleased with the outcome since I had no clue as to what it would end up looking like. I started to build the illustration around the chemist and then realised that the format required was longer and thinner than what I was first told. The Symposium concentrates mainly on chemistry and physics, hence the lack of biology, math and other disciplines. The theme for this symposium is to show scientists how they can make money from their research. If you want to know more about this Symposium, follow this link: MacDiarmid Institute.

This is a wallpaper version.