Pathology: Seborrheic Dermatitis

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A mock 11x17" science magazine double-page spread depicting the pathological process of seborrheic dermatitis (SD) at the tissue level in addition to the clinical presentation. SD is a skin condition that is considered a more severe version of dandruff, which is associated with an overpopulation of Malessezia spp. yeast on the human host due to various biological and environmental factors.

Client | Dave Mazierski

Medium | Procreate, Adobe Illustrator

Format | 11X17" science magazine spread

Audience | Educated lay public

Process Work

Research

I reviewed the literature to understand the clinical presentations of SD, population affected, current knowledge on the etiology of the condition, treatment, and reviewed the changes using histological figures to segregate stages of progression at the cellular level. This was used to develop the final copy for the spread.

Concept + Layout Sketches

I created a maquette of my three tissue cubes in Autodesk Maya as a guide for the sketches and final rendering stage. Several layouts were explored to seek a visual solution where the tissue cubes would be the main focus, while being conscious of the gutter. The final layout design was chosen where the reader would start from the conventional top left corner for a brief introduction and proceed to the tissue cubes, where the other elements (treatment and symptoms) would be the supplementary information.

Preparatory study: colour thumbnails

A cool and warm tone background with teal and pink cells were explored to develop a potential colour palette for the final rendering stage. The grey background contrasted well with the vibrant tissue cube but the teal colour made it hard to understand that they were depicting skin cells. Instead, I opted for a more conventional pink colour for the skin cells. In addition, I tested a peachy skin colour, vs. grey colour for the bottom left individual. While the grey colour made the symptoms areas very salient, it provided an overall cold and depressed mood so the final was rendered with skin colour with a lighter grey background.