In 2015 I rolled the dice on enrolling as a Pre-Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration student. You will notice from the redundant use of Pre- I had a long way to go before becoming a medical illustrator it was a gamble if I would even get into the Biological Illustration program at all. As I was working through my classes on illustration techniques I started to notice a recurrent trend, I didn’t understand layout or use of text in my illustrations and I was starting to learn the hard way successful informational graphics (which is what biomedical illustrations are) are 90% dependent on planning a successful layout of the information. Hierarchy of information corresponds to hierarchy of illustrative detail. The size of the illustration on a layout and controlling where the eye falls in a particular piece depends on the illustrator understanding basic design principles. Illustration cannot be decoupled from design.

Illustration cannot be decoupled from design.

To address the hole in my education, I started seeking out low stakes design opportunities in 2016. My first one paid me in free housing at a local church where I stepped in to my first role as a technical designer. While there I laid out and scheduled their social media posts across multiple platforms (I didn’t even have my own social media accounts at the time), I designed the cover of their weekly bulletin, I created slides for Sunday morning worship, and addressed anything else design related that would come up during the week. Looking back I was terrible at it, the social media had no strategy, I didn’t understand spacing, alignment or consistent use of branding for a long time, and I tried to put underlays on everything. Under laying pictures, under laying patterns, under laying text . . . see the horrors below:

In the end, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Over three years and some other low stake design opportunities, I got good at design. It has elevated my illustrations and allowed me to better serve my clients.

It has elevated my illustrations and allowed me to better serve my clients.

Since 2016, the low stakes work I took on lead to a independent study on desktop publishing, the opportunity to intern as a web designer for a year before going to grad school, and this lead to a 7 year relationship with one of my longest standing clients. It provided countless opportunities to do work with other organizations such as making infographics for the National Environmental Health Association, contributing design materials to preparedness and public health communications, and having illustrations shown in front of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) during the pandemic.

As an illustrator, good design has been integral to creating not just effective illustrations but effective visual communication solutions more broadly. While offering presentation layout, full-service branding and websites as a part of my illustration services may seem the opposite of niche; understanding design as an illustrator has helped set me apart.

Understanding design as an illustrator has helped set me apart.

Here’s to 10 years as a dillustrator and to the people who took a chance on trusting me to design for them on the way!

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