Anatomy@Edinburgh – the story behind the logo!

Here, Ross Jones shares his recollections of the graphic design process: 

“When I was asked to design a logo for Anat@Ed, the only brief I was given was to reference the elephant skeletons that have become synonymous with the anatomy department. Given the significant contributions that Edinburgh has made to both human and comparative anatomy, this suggested a logo featuring both human and elephant skulls. The decision to have the skulls facing each other, one looking back and the other forwards, provided a symbolic means of acknowledging the past, present and future; the upscaling of the human skull and its cradling in the elephant tusk also embraced the concept of a new era for Anatomy@Edinburgh built upon its historic foundations. The original design was sketched out on paper with a Biro and Sharpie! This draft was then scanned and digitally edited with ImageJ software to create the final logo. Given how iconic the logo has become, people might be surprised to learn that the entire process – from initial idea to finished design – took less than half a day! One of those ‘lightning in a bottle’ moments…”