Design.Emergency talk by Alissa Eckert
Design Emergency is an Instagram page created by Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn, set up as a platform as a tool to "research and debate the key issues in the design response to Covid-19."
In the second installment of the series Rawsthorn interviews Alissa Eckert, a medical illustrator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Eckert is one of two of the graphic designers responsible for creating a visual identity for Covid-19 virus, which is aptly named the 'spiky blob'. The designers were given a lot of creative freedom from the client CDC, but asked that the symbol be something that would be up close, bold, dramatic and capture people's attention. Eckert states that herself and Dan Higgins (the other designer on the project) wanted to create a design that was bold and attractive, to envoke a serious feeling by the viewer and stay away from a more playful illustration. Texture was important in showcasing a sense of realism but to keep the texture quite natural in form to ensure that sense of realism.
In visualising the blob, information about the physical form of the virus was downloaded and opened up as a 3d render to give the designers an idea of what they should be basing their design off. This was then simplified to create the form of the illustration. At this stage the form was brought into Adobe After Effects in order to add lighting and shadow effects to again apply the sense of realism by giving the form context. Then the design was finished off and refined to show the design that they created.
With Eckert's basis in scientific knowledge, it gave her the freedom to highlight certain more important areas of the designs and play down other less important aspects as she was quite aware of the function of each of the different intricacies of the blob. This allowed her to create an accurate representation but also not develop an incorrect illustration of the virus.
In development of the illustration, the designers were not expecting for the design to have as vast of an impact as it has. Eckert vocalised how they aim to create these designs with an educational view and are pleased with how it has influenced and inspired people. She goes on to say how she thinks it has given the public "a face to the unknown" and given people an image that they can comprehend and understand better.
As of the interview, Eckert is still working on creating other Covid-19 related illustrations for the CDC such as symptoms etc. Eckert has talked about the need for medical illustration and raising awareness in it. Lastly, she recommends looking at the Association of Medical Illustration, and the work of Emory University around the work of PPE illustrations, to inspire people to see the importance of medical illustrations.
Image Source: https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=23311
Design Emergency Talk Source: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAQSHtejvSo/
Self Reflection
In Alissa Eckert's talk she mentions how she uses pinterest as a tool to help her visualise different forms and colours that she could use in her own design process. With this I was interested to see were there any common themes or design choices or colours that were represented in other Covid-19 media. I decided to look within Ireland at the media which was created for the pandemic. In reflection, I created a moodboard of the Covid-19 advertising media that has been most influential in my life during a pandemic. The moodboard represents the media was being exposed to at the start of the pandemic. This is predominantly because after a certain point all of the signage just seemed to stop grabbing my attention as I knew what the message they were trying to convey was. Included on the left are the Coronavirus Public Health Advice posters commissioned by the Irish Government. On the top right, is the campaign created by illustrator Fatti Burke and launched by the Department of Health and HSE to promote safety during Covid. Lastly shown on the bottom right, I included a selection of posters from the Creatives against Covid-19 campaign. This was a campaign that called on the creative industry to design inspiring posters of optimism and hope, whilst raising funds for ISPCC Childline and Women’s Aid. Posters were then presented in the SOON IS NOW exhibition in the Guinness Storehouse.
Moodboard Sources: