As a quick creative exercise, I spent one Sunday afternoon exploring the idea of duplication through the process of cellular division, and how I could visually communicate it.
With no ultimate goal for the exercise, I simply wanted to explore the concept and play with different ways of recording the process.
I started with creating static visuals of singular shapes mid-way through the cloning process so that I could work outwards to a start and endpoint from there. To go wide at the start, I began looking at triangles, then squares, and finally circles.
Because the process would eventually be animated, I needed to make sure the duplication felt as natural as possible. With the sharp-edged triangles and squares I was not able to create a connection between the first and second shapes without losing the original silhouette. The roundness of the circle, however, did play into the natural transition I was trying to recreate very well. For this reason, I continued with the circle as my subject for duplication.
Now that I had the shape and animation, I was ready to start exploring mediums for capturing the process to represent or at least connotate viewing a cell through a microscopic lens.
To do this I leaned into the slightly distorted effect of photographing LED screens to create a virtual digital texture.
during the setup of this mini-experiment, I came across some colored light filter gels and decided to include them and find out what effects they might have on the photography. Below are some shots I captured during this exploration.
Pretty interesting, but not quite in line with what I’m trying to achieve.
While experimenting with color filters and shooting still images I noticed an interesting effect using a fractionally slower shutter speed on the camera.
I was able to capture a mid-animation shot of the duplicating circle, getting a multilayered effect and showing the duplication process in a single image.
At this point, I felt I had accomplished what I had intended to do; visually communicate duplication through the process of cellular division.
But of course, the designer in me wasn’t finished quite yet. I wanted to apply this visual to something relevant, to give it context through execution.
The most obvious and fitting context was to find a scientific event, speech, or publication which covers the process of cellular division. After a few Google searches, articles, and links clicked, I came across a publication by David O. Morgan titled The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control.
Here is the result of my exploration applied in context.
Thanks a lot for joining me through this mini-exploration and I hope you enjoyed reading through my process.
If you liked the work, it would mean a lot to get a thumbs up from you on my Behance project. If you’re a creative on Behance give me a follow and I’ll try to follow you back!
Thanks again.
Here are some relevant and useful links:
- View this project on Behance
- The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control by David O. Morgan
- Ask me a question, or just say hi!