What do cave deposits tell us about past floods?

We were commissioned by PAGES Horizon to inject visual life into the article “What do cave deposits tell us about past floods?” by Miguel Bartolomé et al.

The project involved two aspects. Editorial design and a one-page comic.

 Editorial Design

We worked closely with geoscientist Miguel Bartolomé to develop a collection of spot illustrations based on sketches and images provided by the scientist and the team. Our goal was to use a unique art style and simple, yet effective use of editorial design to elevate the material.

The output was designed with physical printing in mind, as well as digital distribution.

All the illustrations created were also designed in a way that they could stand on their own, giving the researchers additional illustrated materials to use in future presentations. 

Character Design for a Stalagmite

When it came to the comic, Bartolomé had a character in mind. Ratalpa is the name of the cute stalagmite character. However, as you can imagine, transforming a long, brown object into an appealing and cute character was a challenge.

 We presented Bartolomé with a collection of character designs, from which Ratalpa’s final design was chosen. Afterwards, our team finished the comic based on Bartolomé initial sketches.

All illustrations were created by Alexa Erazo.

Editorial design and art direction by Ian Cooke-Tapia.