Learn about our Illustrator_Emma Scheltema

Over the next little while we will be doing feature articles on our postgrad students. This is a chance to learn a bit more about them and what they have been doing at the lab.  

This week the spotlight is on our honours student – Emma Scheltema. Emma has a Bachelor of Science (Ecology and Conversation) along with currently doing her Bachelor of Design Honours with a focus on medical illustration.

Illustrations of the heart (showing the Fontan procedure) as part of an honours project looking into the effective design of medical illustrations for different users in the hospital. 

Emma’s primary focus is to create illustrations that communicate complex scientific concepts to people, whether it be a diagram that visualises research findings for a scientific journal, or a fun illustration that explains migration to children . 

Miniature anatomical model of the heart, cast in resin, created as part of an honours project

The focus for her honours project is exploring the ways in which illustration might be used to aid the communication of complex medical information within a hospital environment. In particular, the focus will be on comparing the way in which traditional (2D) and digital (primarily 3D) medical illustrations may affect user understanding and experience when used as educational tools. 

When she isn’t doing scientific or medical illustrations she is creating illustrations for children’s books. Emma has been spending most of her spare time working on illustrating a cool science based project that is aimed at raising awareness about NZ insects alongside an entomologist at UoA. She can’t say too much about this project yet as it hasn't been released, but it has been about a years worth of work and she’s pretty excited to see it come out later this year.

Emma is really into science and conversation and over the past few years has been doing a bit of wildlife rehabilitation volunteer work (at NZ Bird Rescue). After her honours is completed she is looking forward to getting back into it.

What inspires our talented Emma? Well she originally started combining her interest in art with her other interest- science, while studying Ecology and Conservation. Which is where her inspiration stems from. Visual design has a lot to offer in terms of making scientific information more accessible and enhancing scientific communication, in both natural sciences and medicine.

Emma’s fav illustration from this year (so far) is the ear anatomy illustration. She has been working on as part of a series of illustrations for the ENT department at Starship. Its not particularly special in terms of medical illustration but it was significant for Emma in terms of learning quite a bit about the technical limitations of the medium she was using (watercolour) and how it could be applied for medical subjects. 

After her honours project is over Emma hopes to do an internship with scientific/medical illustrators to gain some more experience, and is hoping to do some travel too. Emma is looking forward to applying what she’s learnt this year to carrying on with freelance scientific and medical illustration work. An eventually would like to translate this visual science communication into books for children. 

Keep up the awesome work Emma! We look forward to seeing your completed honours project!

To check out more of Emma’s great work click here.

and the Best Awards finalists are...

After a lot of anticipation the Best Awards 2016 finalist were announced earlier this week. The lab is stoked to be finalist this year in four categories this including graphic design, product design,  public good and interactive design.

Our resident boss cat, Eden Short’s student project‘ Wayfinding for healthcare seeking’ is a finalist in both communication design and public good. Two of our postgraduate students,  Antonio Wan and Charlotte Dickson were also finalist. Antonio’s design ‘The little ones’ was a finalist in product design.  While Charlotte’s children’s book ‘Lin Breaks her Arm’ is a finalist in the public good category.

‘Small Brand Identity’ done by the lab is also one of the finalist in the graphic design category. This particular work identifies and visually represents the core values of the Auckland DHB.

Lastly our first ever app was a finalist in interactive design! The Script App is an educational app for medical students and junior doctors to learn correct antibiotic guidelines.

Thomas Mical, Head of School – Art + Design said “We did win a number of Best Awards last year, and are looking forward to more acknowledgement of our programs in 2016. Our Design Health and Wellbeing Lab at Auckland Hospital, which won the Supreme Award last year, is proving to be a design powerhouse with a number of nominations in the product, public good, communication and interactive categories this year”

Well done to the team for all their hard work! Also a huge shout out to everyone involved!

Looking forward to the Best Awards in October.

Farewell Kim!

As a second year exchange student coming from the UK it was great to have the opportunity to be involved in such a forward thinking studio on the other side of the world. I have had the time of my life in New Zealand, and by studying and travelling here I have not only learnt more about myself as a person, but developed a real sense of who I am as a designer.

Being a part of the DHW Lab has been such a rewarding and insightful experience. Through my studies at AUT I have learnt that I am particularly interested in design for society, environmental design and designing with positive change in mind. I believe that the DHW Lab underpins all of these interests, and has really helped to develop my knowledge and skill set. 

In the future I hope to set up my own design studio, and I am sure that I will think back to your studio in Auckland hospital, and what a great collaborative space it is. I have enjoyed working alongside people in healthcare professions, and with people of different design backgrounds. The DHW Lab really is something amazing!

The whole experience of being in New Zealand has truly outdone any expectations I had prior to coming. I have absolutely loved exploring and learning in this beautiful country. I am excited to return to Leeds for the final year of my degree with having had new experiences, insights and developing a fresh outlook on design.

A massive thank you to the team at DHW Lab for having me and being so friendly and welcoming, keep doing what you do! I will no doubt be back in New Zealand as there is still so much exploring to be done, but for now I will look forward to seeing Steve and Reid on the other side in Sheffield!

All the best! 

Multiple Sclerosis Guide Abroad

The MS co-design project supported by the DHW lab was recently presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers Annual Meeting in Maryland, USA.

The banner that summarises the work was very well received at the conference, attracting a lot of attention which is hugely encouraging for project team. Out of 200+ posters, four awards were given and the MS Project banner won the Linda Morgante HOPE award for ‘innovations to impact patient care’. The event was a meeting attended by 2000+ MS Specialists: neurologists, nurse specialists, researchers and allied health so it was quite significant to receive this recognition! The judges described the project as ‘trail-blazing’ as nothing like this in the MS world currently exists.

It’s a great endorsement of the design work developed for the project banner and patient/GP relapse guides themselves.

Want to Intern with us?

The Design for Health and Wellbeing Lab is working to improve healthcare experiences through design. We are excited to have a small number of internships available during the mid semester break coming up in June.

This is an exciting opportunity available for students in AUT’s Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies to work with experienced designers on a number of hospital design projects. The key areas we are focusing on this year for our intern programme are:

_Way-Finding & Environmental graphics

_Web & App Developers from a Digital Design or Computer Programming discipline

If you are:

- A final year Design or Computer Programming student

- Completing your honours or doing postgraduate study

- Able to work independently and as part of a collaborative team

- Experienced in a range of digital platforms

We’d like to hear from you!

Please send a cover letter, CV and online portfolio to

dhwlab@gmail.com by the 31st May 2016.

Time: 1 to 2 weeks or longer (dependent on student)

If you have any further questions please contact us at dhwlab@gmail.com

Cassie Khoo_ Work Experience

Cassie Khoo is currently a Communication Design student, completing her final year at AUT. We recently had Cassie doing her work experience hours at the lab.

Cassie was working on numerous projects alongside Reid, Eden and Byron which explored her strengths, but also pushed Cassie outside of her comfort zone.

On her first day, she helped create a banner that showed the process behind MS Co-design, which was going to be presented at a convention in USA. This was a fun project which both Byron and Cassie were happy with how it came together along with the project lead.

The Performance Improvement Team at the ADHB had Cassie working on some environmental graphics for their new offices. “This particular project put me a bit outside what I'm used to doing. Drawing-related design isn't usually my strong point, and I've never worked with design in space. So I really valued the opportunity to learn and step outside my comfort zone with this.” 

While being at the lab Cassie had the opportunity to experience participating in a workshop run by Eden. This was not something Cassie had come across before. “I think it was a really great way for the whole studio to be involved and help to push a project forward. I felt that was a pretty valuable experience in the sense that I got to see other ways of going through the design process and how it can utilise the studio environment.”

Here are Cassie’s thoughts on the lab: 

“I loved how people can easily walk over to get the help or opinions of someone else, I think it offers a great collaborative and creative environment to work in. The music was great at supporting that environment, making it not overly serious and business-like!

Thank you once again for hosting me at the DHW Lab. I really enjoyed it. It was an overall valuable experience. I hope to work in a studio like the DHW Lab when I graduate.”