We offer graphic design and illustration services for scientific research, this includes but is not limited to:

• Figures

• Graphical abstracts

• Graphics & slideshows for grant applications

• Logos

• Posters

• Infographics

• Page layouts

• Animations

• 3D renders

• Journal covers

• Websites using Squarespace or similar

• Feedback on science graphics

• Custom scientific illustration services

We also offer workshops for students and researchers on accessible graphic design for science

Our prices vary depending on the type of graphic we’re dealing with and their complexity. Please get in touch to get a bespoke quote! When possible, please share your budget. This allows us to tailor our approach and suggest cost-effective options when needed, such as simpler silhouettes instead of more intricate illustrations.

Please fill out our enquiry form in our website or email us to enquiries@sciencegraphicdesign.com

It depends on the complexity of the project, your promptness in giving us concise feedback as well as your deadline. We aim to adjust ourselves to your deadline as much as we can, but we ask that you contact us with as much time as possible so that we can produce high quality graphics for you! Here are some rough estimates of turnaround times for various types of graphics, but this vary depending on our workload and the complexity of your particular project:

• Figures: 2-6 weeks

• Graphical abstracts: 3-6 weeks

• Logos: 3-8 weeks

• PPT/Word templates: 1-3 weeks

• Infographics: 4-12 weeks

• Posters: 4-12 weeks

• Page layouts with some graphics (~10 pages): 3-6 weeks

• Individual illustrations: 2+ weeks

• Journal covers: 2-5 weeks

• 3D renders 3+ weeks

• Websites: 12+ weeks

• Animations/animated videos: 12+ weeks

If you need a project completed faster than the above timelines, please still get in touch! Depending on the specifics of your project, we might still be able to help you within your deadline. If you have an extremely tight deadline, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you (this might incur a rush fee).

Let us know what type of graphic(s) you need, if you have any ideas you would like us to explore, where you’re planning to publish it, your deadline, your budget, and any technical specifications we should be aware of. 

If you have any sketches or rough drafts, do send them over because we find these very useful to understand your vision! These can be anything, from a pen-on-paper sketch to a schematic made in PowerPoint, but we strongly discourage AI generated sketches because they make it more difficult for us to understand what you have in mind. 

Note that we always treat any information/unpublished data with complete confidentiality, and we would never share any of the information you send us.

Yes, we do! Even though our expertise revolves around biology & geology, we are more than happy to make graphics for any scientific field- we just ask that you give us a description of what your graphic will entail and any relevant background if necessary. We have made graphics across many fields, including palaeontology, molecular biology, physics, ecology, geography, psychology, climate change, biomedical sciences, agroecology, cell biology, robotics, and many more!

Initial enquiry & client onboarding:

• You contact us via email (enquiries@sciencegraphicdesign.com) or through a dedicated form on our website. Please make sure to include the following information:

  • Short description of your project

  • Intended place of publication

  • If you have a particular style in mind

  • Deadline 

  • Budget

  • Technical requirements (if needed)

• We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to discuss your project further. Ideally, we’d love to have a call to get to know you better, but we’re also happy to discuss your project over email.

• Once we’ve established your project requirements, we’ll send you a formal quote and working timeline.

  • We’ll also check if we have to be set up as suppliers with your organisation. If needed, we aim to do this right away since this process can take several weeks.

• For larger projects, we also require a contract to be signed with the agreed upon deliverables, working timeline and cost

Drafting stage:

• This is usually one of the longest (and most important) phases of our work as it allows us to discover exactly what you want.

• Initially, we’ll send you one or multiple very rough drafts where we explore various structures and content for your graphic. At this stage we’re not yet concerned about making things look “nice” so most likely everything will be in greyscale and any graphics that we use will probably be downloaded from online repositories.

• After receiving your feedback on this initial drafting round, we’ll settle on a single structure, update the content following your feedback and start to refine the content a bit more. We encourage you to give us as much feedback in the drafting stage as possible, since this will allow us to work more efficiently. We can go through as many rounds of reviews in the drafting stage as needed, although we aim for three rounds. 

Stylising stage:

• Once we’ve settled on a final draft, we’ll start to stylise your graphic. We will take into consideration any technical or style requirements agreed upon during our initial meeting and follow the approved final draft closely. At this stage, we will create custom illustrations, add colour, polish the graphic and make sure it’s publication ready.

• Once we send you the first stylised version, we still welcome your feedback but ask that you keep it to a minimum (e.g., change a bit of text or some colours). If you have substantial feedback after the figure has been stylised, we’re also happy to do it but take into account that it will take much longer and will incur a higher price. That’s why we aim to keep most of the changes in the drafting stage. 

Client offboarding:

• Once we’ve finalised your graphic, we’ll provide you with all the relevant files that you require.

• We will send you our final quote or invoice (whichever is more appropriate for your organisation). Payment is due one month after the invoice is sent.

•  We will also ask that you acknowledge our work wherever you publish your graphic. 

• Finally, we really hope that you enjoy working with us and come back for any future projects!! 

We’re happy to go through as many rounds of revisions as you want (and time permits) in the drafting stage of the graphic (we normally go through about 3 rounds of revisions on drafts). After stylisation, we recommend only one round of minor revisions. If you require more considerable changes on the stylised version of the graphic we’re happy to make them, but be advised that they’ll take longer and consequently, incur higher costs. Therefore, we recommend keeping any major changes in the drafting stage.

Our quotes are valid for one month. If you don’t give us the green light to start working on the graphic(s) by then, we might have to re-check our availability and send a new quote.

We’d really appreciate it if you could add us to the acknowledgements of your paper (or equivalent) as something along the lines of “[Graphic] designed by [designer name] from Science Graphic Design’. On social media, we would love you to tag us! Our Instagram and BlueSky handle is @GraphicsSci. In some graphical abstracts and posters, we might add our logo to the bottom corner. If you require a letter of permission for publishing in a journal let us know and we can send you one.

We do, but you’re welcome to use it in scientific publications and social media (as long as it’s not for profit). If you would need to own the copyright e.g. to use the graphic(s) for profit/commercial use, then do let us know so that we include it in the quote.

We are very proud of how our graphics turn out and we love sharing the finished graphic(s) on social media (our Instagram and BlueSky handle is @GraphicsSci.) or on our website! However, we will only do this if we have permission from you, and the graphic has already been published in another outlet (e.g., by you, a journal or conference). We’ll never share on social media things like grant application figures or anything confidential.

We do not use any generative AI artwork in our work. We’d like to discourage potential clients from providing us with AI-generated drafts. Not only is it bad for the planet and artist rights, but it makes it more difficult for us to understand your vision. We much prefer a short description of what you’d like to show and/or a pencil draft.

There’s a few reasons why we’re better than generative AI!

• Your graphics will be scientifically accurate and perfectly tailored to your audience and publication platform. Generative AI models don’t truly “understand” what you are trying to convey and don’t see beyond your prompts. Our years of scientific training and experience making graphics gives us the knowledge and perspective necessary to ensure the information you want to convey is presented in the best way possible (we’re much more creative than AI!). AI-generated images are often riddled with errors and can easily spread misinformation. 

• All the work we create for you is original and does not infringe the intellectual property of others. Generative AI models are trained using millions of images illegally scrapped from the internet- this means that it uses the work of thousands of artists who received no remuneration or credit for their work or even had the chance to opt-out of this. We believe this is ethically wrong and do not wish to appropriate the work made by hard-working artists and scientists.

• For this reason, many journals don’t accept figures made with generative AI. This is the case of Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature and Science. 

• Generative AI has a huge environmental impact. You can see a fascinating visualisation about how much energy and water ChatGPT consumes in these infographics. Also note image generation is much more energy intensive than text (MIT Technology Review, Forbes).

• We care about your graphics being accessible, that’s not the default for AI. We will always ensure your graphics meet accessibility guidelines.

We care about your research and the work you commission from us! We deeply care about scientific integrity, the ethical use of intellectual property, scientific accuracy and accessibility. We can ensure your graphics are in line with this- let us help you!

Please our portfolio here

Yes! All the members of Science Graphic Design have a formal background in science, ranging from MPhil to PhD. Our areas of training include biology, geology, and palaeontology, but we’re happy to work on graphics related to any scientific discipline!

We have been working as a company for three years now and have successfully completed over 300 projects for people in academia, industry and non-profits all around the world! Before starting SGD, we worked on a freelance basis for several years!

Absolutely! Just let us know and we’ll use them.

We do not handle any printing, but are happy to provide you with print-ready files.