Your thoughts on how informative this interview was is greatly appreciated.

All the best!
Dave

Genome Alberta Facebook gene icons second series of gene icons created for Facebook application. This project is done in conjunction with Don Barnett of Nekton Design and represent a full family of icons created as a team with Cognition Studio. If you have a Facebook account, take some time to check them out for yourself and give the gift of a gene to a friend.

JEH November 2008 editorial cover design receives instant accolades for pushing the envelope in concept development. When this article hit our desk, the topic of public backlash against science’s modifications of food based on research, struck us as a good topic to get graphic with the imagery. We explored a variety of visual ways to depict this broad topic: purchasing direct from the farm, genetically modifying food, to scientific cultivation of food. But we wanted a visceral gut reaction to the cover, one that made the viewer instantly say “oh god! don’t do that to my food!!”

“Please look into submitting your cover of the November issue of Environmental Health Journal for a possible design award. This may be the best cover for a magazine that I have ever seen.”

“That was a spectacular cover that you designed for the November Journal of Environmental Health. We print approximately 90 monthly magazines here at Layton Printing and this is by far the best cover I have seen in my 23 years of working in the printing industry. Great job!” — David Gonzalez (La Verne, CA)

JEH December 2008 editorial cover design depicts the growing trend in green burials. This topic is new, fresh and hotly debated in the public and environmental health industry. With public water supply easily contaminated by embalming fluid, casket material run-off and other toxins, there is a surge in pushing the public to understand the growing necessity of not only living a natural organic life, but also a natural organic afterlife.

JEH January/February 2009 editorial cover design depicts the transmission of pathogens on large urban universities in the United States. With invisible microbes and heavily touched public surfaces, the transmission of bacteria, viruses and other communicable diseases is always a concern. Especially to collegians who are might be immunosuppressed due to poor diet, sleep and lack of exercise.

PRO BONO: Illustration of Tam Lin the Elf Knight featured in Seattle Children’s Theatre Magazine. This illustration was created and donated to the Seattle Chamber Music Society to advertise their family concert event that features a reading of this children’s fairy tale accompanied with classical music performance. Targeting the illustration towards children and featuring an approachable character was a new venture for SCMS.

PRO BONO: CD Package Design for Sacred Harmonies Music-Thanatology Harp Progam at Providence. We were given the opportunity to create this wonderful packaging design for Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett’s Spiritual Care Department. This harp compilation is given to families and patients who are terminally ill or at end of  life.

Visit the Osirix Imaging web site to read more about our personal and indepth process using this incredible software that does image processing of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM).

At first we were floored. Another award? Who do we thank for voting us in? How nice!
With an optimistic inhale and a skeptical exhale we went from a readiness to purchase our shiny, new plaque to realizing the truth thanks to blog posts by fellow ‘winners’. It’s a vanity scam. Pure and simple. Here’s our press release:

U.S. Local Business Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

WASHINGTON D.C., November 4, 2008 — Cognition Studio has been selected for the 2008 Seattle Award in the Graphic Arts category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).

The USLBA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2008 USLBA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USLBA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA)
U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA) is a Washington D.C. based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USLBA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USLBA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Local Business Association
CONTACT:
U.S. Local Business Association
Email: PublicRelations@USLBA.net
URL: http://www.USLBA.ne

Even though it’s a vanity award, it brings a smile to our faces and will do so for years to come. On election night, we were a winner too.

There are many species of illustrators. Some specialize in advertising, entertainment, fashion and children’s books…to name a few. But one rare breed, known as a Medical Illustrator (MI), fuses art with medicine. At first blush, you may not know what MIs do, but you’ve likely seen their work in places such as a high school biology book, a drug or device advertisement in a magazine, perhaps a wall chart in your doctor’s office or even on television (e.g. CSI).  At the core, a MI is a visual storyteller, beautifully depicting complex or never-before-seen information, breaking it down into an easy to understand illustration.

Brief Background
There are five accredited graduate programs in the U.S. and Canada that offer a degree in medical illustration. These programs blend courses of illustration technique, animation, and design with in-depth medical sciences such as gross human anatomy, neuroanatomy, pathophysiology, embryology, etc. Approximately 1,000 MIs world-wide belong to the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) and some of these members opt to take it to the next level and become a Certified Medical Illustrator (CMI)—a voluntary process involving a written exam and a separate, peer-based portfolio review. Being a CMI requires continuing education in the medical, art and business industries, which is paramount to stay at the forefront of innovation and maintain professional expertise. At present, there are 231 CMIs, making the rarest of this rare breed illustrator.

Utilizing a Medical Illustrator
MIs often serve the role of consultant to art directors and clients in developing the visual strategy for communicating complex medical, scientific and biological information. Retain MIs early in your project and look for these key traits to yield the best results: graduate education; pertinent industry expertise (e.g. academic, biotech, editorial, medical legal, pharmaceutical, etc); association memberships; certification; and awards. By doing your homework, you’ll work with MIs that add significant value to your team and provides solid visual solutions. To find MIs, possibly right in your backyard, visit www.ami.org, and click on the Member Directory link.

Note: the AMI web site will be vastly new and improved with a tentative launch date of early November, 2008. It’s a site worth visiting as it will afford you the opportunity to read a lot more about the industry, the artists and the opportunity to locate an MI that fits your specific need. Perhaps you’ll find yourself inclined to become an MI as well!

Experience Matters
Continual training, being research-oriented, and having an eye for detail truly lends itself to working with clients in hospitals, medical research, law firms, design firms, ad agencies and biotech companies. Serving each diverse industry demands specific skills, but the necessary training to become a MI provides artists with the expertise and confidence needed to formulate ideas and execute distinctive illustrations. Of course, being in a creative industry, personality and enthusiasm are also vital to ensure successful client relationships.

This article originally appeared in Media, Inc./Northwest Creative Showcase, Issue 6, 2007. Since its first appearance in Media, Inc., the number of certified medical illustrators dropped from 237 to 231.

In late June, Cognition Studio submitted a medical device product/anatomical illustration series to the Create 2008 Awards.

The Create Awards is one of the top competitions for working creative professionals across the nation and is open to all creative professionals and students working in advertising, film and video, motion graphics, graphic communication, photography, printing, interactive media, and copywriting. The competition spans eight industries and includes more than 300 categories. www.thecreateawards.com.

On September 10, we received word that the illustrations for Bellacure, the same company project that won an award in Graphic Design USA (see Press post), had also won a SILVER Medal in the Corporate Illustration category (see below for sample art or visit Cognition Studio for larger samples in the Projects section). In addition to this award, Cognition Studio received a free, all-access pass to the Create Chaos 2008 conference held in Orlando, FL this October 13 – 17.

When Delilah spoke with Kristine Johnson, she was clear that she wanted to keep her artistic roots and approachable feel while taking a leap into the new technology that 2008 has to offer for web development. Delilah is a mover and a shaker, the earth makes waves for her ideas…and they can be big! To get the job accomplished, Cognition Studio has partnered with Liz Andrade of CMD+Shift Design to get all the details figured out from the concept inceptions through the building process.

Delilah’s problem was multi-tiered in that she needed a fresh new brand to compete in a growing market place AND it had to be applied to her nation-wide as well as local marketing niches, and long standing e-commerce web presence. (When we launch her marketing campaign, we’ll let you know, it’s gonna be very cool!) Her web presence was complicated by the fact that she has 3 distinct divisions of her company, all equally important and integrated, but needed to be handled as separate divisions on the website. Our solution…create portal or landing pages from the homepage that leads the user into each section through a rich storybook style. Once inside, each section morphs into it’s own but all main elements of navigation, color and background so users know where they are and where they want to go. This concept gives Visionary Belly Dance a lighter feel for the user while still being a deep site with lots to explore and offer.

This site is still in progress, but it’s something we feel is noteworthy of showing now.

Give the gift of a gene on Facebook. Genes are those little things on your chromosomes you learned about in school that makes you who you are. Incredible advances in science and technology has allowed us a peek inside genes to see how they work their magic, and Genome Alberta wants to share some of those secrets.

Long time colleague and friend, Don Barnett, owner of Nekton Inc. partnered with David Ehlert to create and unique set of icons to be used on facebook.com. Icons are challenging, but creating gene specific icons to be viewed by millions of people around the world took two top illustrators to tackle. Don tapped Cognition Studio’s medical expertise and together they distilled the complex messaging into simple iconic images that are virally spread over facebook.com by users of many countries. These icons are fun, easy to understand and most of all, catching.

The icons launched in April 2008 and the week they launched were immediately picked up by magazines in the US and Canada, complimented for their unique quality and viral charm.

Currently, Don and Dave are partnering to create the next generation of Genomic Icons to be release one per month until the end of the year. We’d love to show you the newest one, but it’s still under wraps!

The American Inhouse Design Awards has emerged as the premier showcase for outstanding work by inhouse designers. It is a unique opportunity for inhouse design, marketing and communications departments within corporations, publishing houses, non-profits, universities and government agencies to be recognized for their creativity, for the special challenges they face and for their contributions to their businesses and institutions.

Cognition Studio’s Kristine Johnson and David Ehlert, partnered with Bellacure to develop targeted illustration that communicate essential components of their medical device, and to then implement a turnkey marketing brochure that helped them elevate their brand, create industry buzz and boost sales…and it doesn’t hurt to win an award in the process.

Cognition Studio’s David Ehlert was an integral team member on the Tri Hoang medical malpractice case. Brought in early in the game, David was able to help sift through the complex case data and work with a team of specialists to understand the information that was vital to the case. Work on this case went on for over a year and was fervidly and meticulously reviewed and illustrated to ensure the jury would be able to follow along and understand even the minute details while grasping the overall picture. On this case, the illustrations were key to the jury’s ability to understand and stay involved in such a complex medical case and it took a team to get them to where they were.

Lawyer, Mike Wampold says…”Cognition studio was an integral team member in a recent medical malpractice trial that resulted in a $5.4 million verdict.  The visuals that were created told the story of what happened to victim in such a compelling way the jury got the somewhat complicated story immediately.  You couldn’t ask more of David than what he gave to this project–he patiently brainstormed ideas to improve the visuals and would not quit until each one was perfect.  David was also incredibly responsive–he created new visuals on a moments notice in the middle of trial.  Perhaps the best endorsement is this:  I plan to use Cognition Studio on every trial from now on.”

Cognition Studio doesn’t get recognition when cases like this are won, we’re not mentioned in the newspaper or called for an interview, what we do get is the knowledge that our work has paid off. And it paid off big for Tri Hoang’s family and that is why we do what we do. We work hard to make our clients stand out.

Much gratitude to all those integral team members who made this case such a success.