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How Illustrators Created the Iconic Coronavirus Image

Photo credit: CDC
Photo credit: CDC

From Popular Mechanics

  • The ominous, omnipresent 3D illustration of COVID-19 (coronavirus) is the work of two accomplished CDC artists.

  • Like many images of space, these models are artificially colored to be visually effective.

  • Medical and scientific illustrators bring difficult ideas to life by making them seem more real to viewers.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrators behind the now-iconic coronavirus image have revealed to the New York Times how and why medical illustrations help us connect with pathogens and other microorganisms.

When viewed close up, the individual COVID-19 (coronavirus) is basically spherical with a selection of smaller particles attached in clumps. It looks like a Christmas orange studded with cloves. (Warning: If you have a strong visual response called trypophobia, you might want to scroll past this image.)

Photo credit: karma_pema - Getty Images
Photo credit: karma_pema - Getty Images

So what goes into illustrating a current event in medicine? Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins first received the assignment to render an image of COVID-19 in mid-January, right after the CDC opened its Georgia operations center for responding to the pandemic. Their mission? Create “something to grab the public’s attention,” Eckert told the Times.

Eckert said she sees her role as bringing a complicated, emotionally difficult, or microscopic idea to life using art. “Ms. Eckert uses art to make difficult medical concepts more approachable,” Times reporter Cara Giaimo writes. “Often this means bringing the unseeable into view.”

Indeed, the brightly colored 3D illustration of the COVID-19 virus soon spread around the world as the high-impact visual that accompanied the growing volume of coverage.

There are different fields within medical and scientific illustration, including people who still work with traditional 2D media, those who make 2D digital artwork, those who work in full digital 3D, and combinations of all three in different proportions. Hand-drawn or painted illustration of scientific ideas dates back almost as far as rigorous science itself. Before photography, illustration was the only way many organisms could be documented for publication or even for the public to look at.

Eckert and Higgins used powerful tools to build this particular 3D model, and Eckert has previously rendered norovirus and mumps using similar tools.

First, the illustrators gather expert input on what the virus looks like up close. What are its component parts, and what purpose does each part serve for the virus? In the case of COVID-19, there are three kinds of proteins that do different jobs. A resource called the Protein Data Bank lets scientists and illustrators look up different structures and visualize them.

All of this goes into 3D modeling software, where qualities like look and even "feel" can be adjusted until the final work is the most effective visual communication possible. Choosing the texture, which looks like the pebbly skin of the orange, makes the model seem more tactile and touchable. This is done in a powerful piece of Autodesk software called 3ds Max, which is used by game developers and animators.

Once the pieces are assembled, illustrators must choose colors and even the direction of lighting that falls on a 3D model. There are some demonstrated ways color can influence human mood, but this step is just as much graphic design and aesthetics—if not more so. The final image has to be relatable, visually coherent for even a layperson, and of high design quality.

Eckert told the Times she carefully chose the colors to make sure they would harmonize with any published collateral. “Red on gray, with orange and yellow accents, was the most arresting: ‘It just really stood out.’”

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