For Dr. Amelia Ibinabo Kiki-Joshua: A Notepad Design

Project scope:

My sister has been in the Benjamin Carson (Snr.) School of Medicine at Babcock University, undergoing training to achieve her life-long dream of becoming a doctor and in February 2021 (should have been in 2020 but COVID happened), she was inducted into the medical profession. Definitely a reason to celebrate, with COVID guidelines in mind of course.

Part of the culture here in Nigeria when we have a celebration/event is giving gifts (popularly called souvenirs) to family, friends and well-wishers who celebrate with you. One of the gifts to be given was a custom notepad which is one of the conventional gifts you give in an occasion. For this, my parents asked me to come up with a design for the notepad in 24 hours.
*cue the hot tears of exasperation*

If you don't know African parents, they think 24 hours is more than enough time to ideate and create something, even when you have a job and other tasks waiting for you. Despite the pressure, taking a bath was more important than anything else. It was in that white room I had a literal eureka moment, like a design Archimedes.
I am an avid fan of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which introduced me to the works of the polymath Leonardo da Vinci that cut across art, technology and anatomy. While reading the book, my curiosity was piqued and I Googled da Vinci's notes and got references to old physician notebooks.

My parents didn't want her face on the cover and I didn't want to do something generic for her. Remembering those references was my Eureka moment: the idea for the notepad was to make it look like an old physician's notebook.

My moodboard:

The process:

For the front cover, one key element I noticed on the notepads of doctors who were inducted before my sister's graduating class was the caduceus (or Staff of Hermes). Rather than leave in the generic way, I found a 3D render of the caduceus and using the Da Vinci Photoshop action, I made it look like a drawing in da Vinci's notebook.

The next element created was a wax seal embossed with the logo of Babcock University, her alma mater. My sister thought this would be a nice and unique touch. I created the seal with Illustrator and it was exactly what she wanted to see.

For the back cover, I still kept with the look and feel of an old physician's notebook. The back had three major elements:

- the text at the top: The text reads The Hippocratic Oath, an ancient pledge of medical ethical conduct that addresses two important tenets: benefiting the ill and protecting patients against personal and social harm and injustice.

- the image in the center: Inspired by da Vinci again, I added the image of The Vitruvian Man. This drawing of a male figure perfectly inscribed in a circle and square illustrates what he believed to be a divine connection between the human form and the universe. I did this to add some anatomical context to the design and still maintain the general concept.

- the text at the bottom: Also one of the core documents of medical ethics, the Declaration of Geneva of the World Medical Association safeguards the ethical principles of the medical profession from the influences of zeitgeist and modernism. It is a declaration of a physician's dedication to the humanitarian goals of medicine, a declaration that was especially important in view of the medical crimes.