National Geographic

Xenotransplantation

In 2024, Jason Treat, senior graphics editor of National Geographic, asked me to illustrate a gatefold on using type of pig for human organ transplantation. (Pigs have organs similar to humans in size, anatomy, and function and are therefore ideal for this purpose.)

This project is an example of the instances when I’m given a very tight brief and am mostly called upon as an illustrator.

Here’s the layout he sent me:

There was some discussion on how to treat the DNA strand. I remember that in the initial discussion, Jason used the words “light,” “ethereal,” and “almost magical” when describing how he wanted the DNA to feel. I suggested we treat the DNA helix as a grouping of spheres representing the molecular structure within. So I put together a sketch:

After a little tweaking to the shape of the strand, I started on the pig proper. I found anatomy for the piglet and its internal organs and began modeling it.

Here’s the initial sketch of the pig I sent. There was some back-and-forth on treating the lighting of the pig and getting its organs to read easier.

We made some color tweaks to the background, along with a few other adjustments to the design and shape of the strand in order to make the flow of captions optimal:

And here’s the final illustration, in layout: