Illustrations for the pedagogical book
"Mieux Connaître Les Amyloses"
Project
Amyloidosis is a rare disease.
I was commissioned by the « Association Française Contre l’Amylose », AFCA, to create illustrations that would explain how the disease works. I also helped the AFCA to achieve their information book project which gathered the illustrations i made and texts from specialized physicians.
The book was designed to help patients and their families understand the disease. Images were designed as a pedagogical tool to be used by medical teams.
I was commissioned by the « Association Française Contre l’Amylose », AFCA, to create illustrations that would explain how the disease works. I also helped the AFCA to achieve their information book project which gathered the illustrations i made and texts from specialized physicians.
The book was designed to help patients and their families understand the disease. Images were designed as a pedagogical tool to be used by medical teams.
Amyloidosis
Amyloidosis is about a defect in the making of some proteins by the cells in our body.
Proteins are long chains of molecules. Once synthesized by the cells, they fold into a particular shape that allows them to perform whatever their task is in our organism. If the proteins are defective, they fold into an unexpected shape and tend to bind together.
The term amyloidosis is used when these misfolded proteins bind into fibers that accumulates in the organs, avoiding them to function properly.
Unfolding the mystery
Proteins are complex molecules usually represented with a simple line.
We wanted to get as far away as we could from these geometrical depictions that are cold and static. They don’t convey the movement of the proteins folding process, though it is at the very genesis of the disease.
However, we admitted the line as the most effective abstract way to picture a protein.
So we decided to fold, and sometimes unfold, a single digital brush stroke to create shapes that give the idea of this organic folding movement.
Thanks to the stylus pressure sensitivity, we created opacity variations. The result sometimes recalls digitally colored micrographs.
Portraits
Many different proteins can provoke the disease, leading to different types of amyloidosis. Amyloidosis types are classified depending on the name of the protein that causes the illness.
To enrich the book iconography, we decided to create portraits of the proteins responsible for the most common types of amyloidosis.
Each portrait introduce the corresponding book section.
To enrich the book iconography, we decided to create portraits of the proteins responsible for the most common types of amyloidosis.
Each portrait introduce the corresponding book section.
I'd like to thanks the AFCA team for their trust and their work.
Thank you for watching !