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| Your science is beautiful, or at least, deserves a beautiful figure. |
In modern academia, beautiful eye-pleasing figures are
vital. Why? Don’t you think if your data are good, they should be appreciated as
well? Your professor might say that a journal editor’s impression will be
changed or the reviewers of your papers, so if your paper’s figures are
stunning, the acceptance rate will be higher. I won’t deny it, but don’t you
think it sounds a little too worldly and superficial?
I reframe this matter as a contribution to the field. The
published papers will be read by people in the field, but possibly people
outside the field as well—or maybe by high school students who are looking for
a subject to study in college. We all love what we do and are proud to
contribute to piled-up knowledge, but if you go one step farther, reaching out to
people outside the field is also good way to contribute the research field. Nice
art and beautiful data are good tools because we all have an aesthetic sense.
Now don’t you think it might be worth taking the time? Today, even if people
don’t understand what “nano” is, they like to buy expensive cosmetic lotion
containing called some weird thing decorated with a cool scientific term like “nanowater.”
If more people get interested in real science and pay more respect to
fundamental research, don’t you think the world will be a little more
interesting?
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| Very notorious fake science. Sigh... |
When making beautiful figures, I usually take the
following steps:
(i)
Find
your favorite figures or cartoons using Google Image analysis or from published
articles from the field.
(ii)
Determine
the layout and design of your figures.
The step is important. If you start with the best, it is
much easier to make a better one than making something from scratch. Choosing a
good starting point is important.
(iii)
Determine the panel contents.
(iv)
Start creating.
Check the color coordination and design balance.
Customize your figures by putting your data, contents,
claims, and adjusting color coordination and design balance. This topic will
be further discussed in the next post.
(v)
Be
consistent for all formats.
(vi)
Revise,
revise, revise!
As previously shown, be consistent for all formats such as
font size, font, line width, space, and locations in all elements in the
panels. Revise and refine—a lot!
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| Google image search is useful. You can determine what design you want in your presentation, and use it as your starting point. |
Good luck on your arty figure-making!
