No items found.
Subscribe
Join our conversation about design and global challenges
We transformed groundbreaking research into an accessible and award-winning public engagement platform with UCL’s Centre for Advanced Biomedical Engineering.
The project included the development of a complete identity, interactive exhibition, website, educational booklets and film that helped the team share their knowledge and engage with thousands of young people and colleagues across healthcare and engineering disciplines.
It also gave young researchers an opportunity to recognise the importance of public engagement for their personal and professional development.
“An absolute pleasure to work with the Design Science team and Anne. I and the MetaboLight team learned a lot and I am very proud of what we have achieved.“
UCL’s research into spectroscopy for newborn brain health needed to break out of the lab. We helped them to communicate this complex technology to non-specialist audiences including students, neonatal care teams and the wider public.
We developed a name and identity – based on a super-simplified schematic image of a brain – that went beyond the usual research acronyms to provide a recognisable logotype that could be used across digital and physical touchpoints, from print and web to team t-shirts and exhibits. It was designed so that it could adapt to different contexts, appearing in single colour or as a virtual or actual 3D ‘stencil’ with light and images shining through.
The website became a hub for project material. We developed a range of illustrations, professional photography and copywriting to make the research easy to understand and useful for educators inside UCL and beyond.
Our cost-effective portable exhibit was used across a number of science festivals. We used interchangeable graphics, lighting, £5 IKEA tables and creative communications to engage with audiences at the Norwich Science Festival (2017), The Big Bang Fair in Birmingham (2018) and The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (2019).
“The footfall for the 9 days in the Forum was approximately 75,000. The MetaboLight stand looked fantastic and was very engaging!“
For the Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition, we worked with illustrator Giulia de Amicis to visualise the complex machinery and neonatal care setting through a beautiful backdrop that supported conversations between the team and visitors.
The exhibit became a focal point for conversation and resulted in a BBC World Service interview with Professor Tachtsidis, recorded live at the Royal Society – ‘Lighting the brain after birth’.
Our engagement activities also included the design and development of three booklets, funded by a Wellcome Trust grant, which helped communicate new research by UCL’s Dept of Medical Physics and Bioengineering on the medical applications of near-infrared spectroscopy.
Each booklet – on science, engineering and the hospital – simplified complex concepts into visually rich and engaging articles and activities.
The science issue
The engineering issue
The hospital issue
Finally, we filmed the team in their lab and around UCL to bring their work and their stories to life in a fun but meaningful format, interlacing interviews with infographics to share the power and possibilities of engineering in health with a larger online audience.
If you are developing new technologies for inclusive and meaningful health or ecological good, we’d be delighted to hear from you and use creativity and co-design to bring your knowledge to life for a wider audience as well.
