Critique: Minimalist RNA

I spotted today’s poster when researching the Woodstock of Biology 2 + Night Science conference for the June link roundup. I reached out to its creator, Jakub Zeman, who sent along a copy and how he made it. Click to enlarge!

 

I’ll let Jakub tell the story from here (lightly edited). 

Our model focuses on how pluripotent stem cells develop into cardiomyocytes. Cells make multiple decisions over several days to become the correct cell type. My research explores how this is regulated at the translation level. Many processes signal to ribosomes the need for specific proteins to be made. We believe that ribosomes are the key decision-makers, producing those proteins in the right quantities at the right time. Thus, the ribosome is a central element in my poster.

I had previously experimented with the #BetterPoster concept, but for this special conference (Woodstock of Biology 2 + Night Science), I decided to take it to the next level. 

I was focused on making figures for our latest manuscript, so I opted for simple vector graphics and minimal charts to illustrate my story. 

The ribosome is complex, but can be simplified to a basic shape that represents large and small subunits. I added a ribbon symbolising the newly formed protein. The mRNA molecule is usually depicted as a straight line passing through the ribosome, but this time, I represented it with an interface between two differently coloured spaces.

In the top section, I showcased examples of cellular processes communicating with ribosomes.

In the bottom section, I presented a sequence of cell types recapitulating cardiac differentiation, along with two simple charts, and all other necessary details.

I chose a palette with four colours: two close ones for the background and two distinct ones for the ribosomal subunits. For different cell types, I created a sequential colour palette to illustrate how they get closer to becoming cardiomyocytes with each step.

I designed my poster using Affinity Designer on macOS, using different weights of Helvetica Neue to highlight key text while maintaining a clean and simple typography.

By limiting myself to simple shapes, few colours, and minimal charts, I created a poster that deviates significantly from a traditional scientific poster. But I use a poster as a visual aid to tell my story, aiming to engage viewers and encourage interaction, rather than having them silently read the dense text and charts.

I admire this poster’s boldness and simplicity. There is only one thing that I question: the rays of words surrounding the small subunit at the top. By the time you reach the rightmost phrase, “RNA modification,” you are reading almost upside down.

I made some similar text in PowerPoint.

 Kind of tough to read those three words and phrases on the right.

 One alternative: stack the letters.

But you are almost forced to use all caps here to prevent letters with descenders (like “g”) dropping down and running into adjacent letters. The variable width of the letters also contributes to making this hard to look at. And because we are not used to characters being stacked, these long words are hard to read. 

Second alternative:

I like this more than my stacked letter option. But it would be nice if there was an even number of words, because then you would have an even number facing each direction.  This, to me, is more readable even though it is less consistent.

Thanks to Jakub for sharing his work! 

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