The Visual Elements--Design: A Handbook for Communicating Science and Engineering

With insights and examples from designers at publications from Nature to the New York Times, an essential guide to creating figures and presentations.

In this short handbook, award-winning science communicator Felice C. Frankel offers a quick guide for scientists and engineers who want to share--and better understand--their research by designing compelling graphics for journal submissions, grant applications, presentations, and posters. Like all the books in the Visual Elements series, this handbook is also a training tool for researchers. Distilling her celebrated books and courses to the essentials, Frankel shows scientists and engineers, from students to primary investigators, the importance of thinking visually. This crucial volume in the Visual Elements series offers a wealth of engaging design examples. Case studies and advice from designers at prestigious publications and researchers' own before-and-after examples show how even the smallest changes--to color, type, composition, and layering--can greatly improve communication. Ideal for researchers who want a foothold for presenting and preparing their work for everything from conferences to publications, the book explains the steps for creating a concise and communicative graphic to highlight the most important aspects of research--and to clarify researchers' own thinking. The resulting book is an essential element of any scientist's, engineer's, or designer's library.

Author: Felice C. Frankel
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 03/21/2024
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780226829166

About the Author
Felice C. Frankel is an award-winning science photographer and research scientist in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working in collaboration with scientists and engineers, Frankel has had images appear in the New York Times, National Geographic, Nature, Science, PNAS, Newsweek, Scientific American, Discover, Popular Science, and New Scientist, among others. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including Visual Strategies, Picturing Science and Engineering, and The Visual Elements--Photography, the last also published by the University of Chicago Press.