Skin penetration is a game
About it
Dr Huiyi Wang, and the collective efforts of the research group led by Prof. Marcelo Calderon established key structural parameters of thermoresponsive polyglycerol-based nanogels to enhance the skin penetration of hydrophobic drugs. Nanogels are equipped with a range of tools that enable them to deliver greater amounts of cargo to deeper skin layers. The result was featured on the Inside back cover of Small: Volume 20, Issue 32
Roles: Conceptualisation, Illustration
Client: POLYMAT
Tools: Photoshop
The Challenge
Designing the cover for this study meant translating a complex screening of skin-penetration systems into a single, engaging image. The key tension: how do you show multiple formulations competing to reach deeper skin layers, without it looking like a textbook diagram?
The Process
Two ideas clicked early on: screening studies are essentially a race between systems, and the finish line is the deepest layer of the skin. That led us to a retro video game concept, a mining game where characters dig through skin strata.
We designed four pixel-art characters, each representing a key system from the study. Their stats and abilities mirror the actual compositions (different builds, different strengths) just like a character selection screen. Some are fantastical gel-based creatures; others are more grounded, including Dr Huiyi Wang herself leading the race into the deepest mine, and a small cameo of me as the cyclodextrin control (not doing much digging, sadly).
For the setting, we drew a direct parallel between the Earth's lithosphere and the epidermis: a landscape of skin cells with a rocky, sunbaked surface where sparse hairs provide the only shade. Amber streaks stand in for Langerhans cells, oil wells for melanocytes, and subsoil roots for neurons reaching crystalline Merkel cells. Since the systems included hydrogel structures for cargo protection, we rendered those as gelatinous domes and tents sheltering the characters on the arid surface.