Kathy Mandell

Kathy Mandell, Senior editor and designer

Office for Research

Finance, Planning, and Communication

Office for Research Holiday Card, December 2008

InDesign print project; run of 1,000 cards, 17" x 21"

Artist’s Statement:

Each year, the Vice President in the Office for Research (OR) mails a holiday greeting to staff and senior administration at Northwestern. Typically, research art is chosen for the cover-something that shows an important and current discovery or research project. I met with Jay Walsh, OR vice president and Meg McDonald, executive director, OR Planning, Finance and Communications. This year, we thought about featuring antique scientific equipment. After seeing an exhibit at Deering Library that showcased Darwin, knowing that this would be the 200th celebration of his birthday, we wanted to engage our staff in the One Book/One Northwestern events. So, we decided to honor Darwin on our card.

Amanda Morris, OR publications editor, took a photo of the microscope from the Darwin exhibit. I searched for an appropriate quote, wrote text, and gathered and edited other images for the card and pulled together a simple design. Joan Naper, research communications director, edited the texts. The inside of the card featured a photograph of a state-of-the-art, live-cell imaging microscope in use (from the Feinberg School of Medicine Cell Imaging Facility). The card shows how far research has come: from examining and observing the whole animal as Darwin did, to being able to examine an animal's living cells as is done today.

Jurors’ Comments:

"This holiday card compiles the ideas of Darwin’s work, his finches, with one of the most used tools in science, a microscope. I think it shows the clear connection between science and the theory of evolution."

"Nothing says "Thank You" like 4.6 Billion years of Darwinian Evolution by Natural Selection."

"This piece captures the classic representation of evolution juxtaposed with an aspect of Darwin's life."

"A wonderful celebration of the moment – I loved finding it in my box last fall…"

"Cleanly designed, attractive."