Science image update

[taimatsu]

Okay, to be a bit clearer about what I'm actually doing after yesterday's post, the project requires me first to design and hand draw very carefully at large size three pictograms, and then to design a poster using one of them. The 'client' is the Science Museum.

I have been working on an 'explosion' and a magnifying glass, my reasoning being that these are images which are not just connected to SCIENCE as such, but that the explosion could be used in contexts denoting 'excitement' (family science adventure event, or similar) and the magnifying glass is something anyone can use to look closely at things, and has connotations of 'discovery'. It's certainly something I remember being excited about using when I was little.

I do want my third image to be more directly 'scientific', so I was already considering the atom image, the bubbling flask etc. I am wary of a microscope, though it's a very appropriate image, as it would be quite tricky to hand-draw it to the required level of accuracy - I'm having to do by hand what I would naturally use a computer vector-drawing program to do, with nice automatic straight lines and neat ellipses. I think 'mad scientist' would be too steteotypical - DNA strands would be cool.

Any further thoughts, now you have more details?

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

For DNA strands, if it's any help, lightly pencil in a triple helix, then rub out one of the strands. That'll get the spacing between the other two correct. The aspect ratio of a single turn of the helix approximates to the Golden Ratio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ratio). The "rungs" of the DNA ladder should be broad and flat and with a gap two thirds along their length.

[abi]

A Bunsen burner? Very like a microscope in that it makes me think instantly of science, but a great deal easier to draw.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

There's a weedkiller-and-fertiliser company with a microscope logo - could be Fisons, maybe Monsanto Ag - see if you could still base your logo on that.

A line drawing of a magnifying glass halfway over a bug works well conceptually, but over-a-flower is probably a more agreeable image.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

What comes to mind for me, personally, is either the steam engine or the terrella (in that icon - that's a photo I took at the Science Museum awhile back). The first could be tied in through Boyle, but it's a bit of an obscure image. The second could stand in for magnetism (one of the earliest Science-type things) and for the moving Earth, but it's even more of an obscure image.

How about a sun & planetary orbit(s), with little directional arrows? That could look a lot like a Bohr atom too.

Another that springs to mind is a benzene ring, but that might be too specifically chemical.

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

I wondered about cells, and the inner part of cells. My inned bio geek really loves those diagrams of cells + organelles, and I associate them with learning bio-sciences. They are really complex diagrams though:
or
.

I like the idea of DNA strands, but I wonder whether there are already SO MANY associations with that that it becomes complicated. What about a petri dish and pipette? Or maybe a petri dish next to a bunsen burner?

Hmm, I'm trying to think of the imagery of science, and it becomes really complicated.

Someone from the interpretive side of the Natural History Museum (http://www.nhm.ac.uk) talked to us at a conference about when they re-designed their look a few years ago, and their business cards all just have the big N, with a picture from their collection in the background. It's ace, because every time you see it, you see a different bit of natural history. If you have a look at the different pages of their website you can see how it works. Sorry for rambling, I just think this is really fascinating, and am obsessed with the perceptions of science/biology by people who work in the field, and who don't.

Oooh, maybe have a look at the Institute of Biology and Institute of Physics websites to see how they portray science differently?
N.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I feel that to represent Science in general, it ought to be something associated with the processes of investigation and discovery, rather than something once elucidated thus - like DNA or a Bohr atom or whatever. Measuring/visualisation devices (thermometer, microscope, telescope, &c.) seem in keeping with this. I guess flasks are good too, but quite stereotyped. Too much lab machinery is now black (well, beige) boxes.

[mistress-carrot.livejournal.com]

It would be better to go for something on a grander scale. People don't get excited by scientific equipment and the point of the Science Museum is to engage people on varying levels so that beginners can be excited and supposed experts can learn things they don't know yet.

So why not go for every day science? Cars, a wind turbine, space rockets, a baby, a plastic bag, a plane, a light bulb (although that's been done to death), a huge magnet etc.

Some of these are things that people consider to be normal but are playing an important part of advancing science, cars are constantly being made more efficient and are using different sources of fuel as well as being expressions of more traditional scientific principals. A wind turbine would express the increasing concern over alternate energy. While test tube babies are quite old fashioned now stem cells, which are only active in the first few years of life, are an important part of modern day biology - in fact in that context a picture of a part grown embryo would express this even better and could convey that science begins plays an important part in our lives before we are even born.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Heh, if I was the Science Museum I'm not sure I'd be all that keen on the idea of an explosion icon, even after you'd explained the additional metaphorical meaning.

(Likewise anything relating to mad scientists (even Einstein), Frankenstein, mutants, vivisection, nuclear radiation, etc.)

Assuming their brand values are about curiosity, discovery, the wonderful richness of the universe etc, the magnifying glass and DNA sounds more like the right kind of area.

[flippylip.livejournal.com]

Sorry, sneaked in via Matt Matt's LJ.

Why not a magnifying glass enlarging a strand of DNA

[taimatsu]

I think you're right about the explosion! Hadn't thought of that :)

[angeoverhere.livejournal.com]

You could have a go at bringing together the 'explosion' with a schematic of the brain, suggesting ideas as well (like a lightbulb-head image)?

I'm wondering if the third one should suggest some of the ethical wossnames raised by science (sorry, workhat is still on), as I know places like the Science Museum want to raise this kind of thing these days. Something like a simlified cell / cell in petri dish or under microscope, which suggests learning about biology, but also issues like stem cells etc..