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.

Exploring Shape Variations

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.

Capturing the Microscopic Effect

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.

Pretty interesting, but not quite in line with what I’m trying to achieve.

Discovery Through Camera Technique

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.

Final Application

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.

Closing Remarks

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.

Thanks again.