Design
Let us be forward with one another, I am no trained designer. Nonetheless, I think its something that needs to be broached more in the practice of medicine. Design can apply to the workflow in the hospital, the layout of a patients room, the labeling on medications, and more. Medical professionals working in their daily surroundings can help identify areas that can be changed and improved upon, but more likely than not will lack the skills to implement them. Honestly, an elective or two in school may be beneficial to help those with an interest in such area.
Other areas of design that captivate me include the creation of logos, typography, website design, and poster design. One area I hope to improve upon is infographic design. Wouldn't it be great if we could sum up studies through an infographic? Even the BMJ seems to be getting into this area.
The following are some of my amateur attempts. Hopefully I can actually take some classes in the upcoming years and look back on this and laugh.
Personal Logo Design
I always wanted a personal log I could eventually splash everywhere. I remember playing on a lathe and mill in a factory and making personal stamps on downtime. After the completion of my formal education and embarkation on my career, I sought to tie my loves together. Namely, the practice of pharmacy and mobile technology.
As such, I took the Bowl of Hygieia and a smartphone as a baseline. In essence, I think these items encompass what I am known for at the current time, and I have no trouble reinforcing it. Afterwards, through sketching and playing on Pixelmator I came up with the following.
To finalize the logo, I went with a circular border, and stayed with a black/white theme. I figure in the future I can make a stamp or use this for branding purposes.
Still a bit rough around the edges, but I'll fix it.
My finalized website logo design.
Mobile Phone Mockups
The investment into wireframes or associated materials is not something I have no quite gotten into. Primarily due to the fact I do not design apps or create anything of the sort. However, I have found the need to create mockups for use in publications as figures and for personal use in describing thoughts during a presentation. The following are a few of my attempts.
It's amazing what you can do in Word...
Perhaps inspired by this video about creating iOS 7 in Word, I gave a chance of making a modular phone in word for an article about modular medical phone on iMedicalApps. I am still envious of the guy's skill.
Nonetheless, my learning experience was not to take for granted the built in abilities within commonly used software. Hell, we make posters in PowerPoint for instance.