[HER]: Stellar Women in Computing
Illustration, Poster Design, Visual Design
Overview:
Create a poster series amplifying the remarkable impacts made by women in computer sciences.
My senior thesis is a poster series recognizing and exploring the influential contributions of these women. Photographic elements, collage, illustrative overlays, computer-style elements as well.
These posters educate and represent individuals interested in learning more about computer sciences.
Role: Illustrator, Designer
Art Direction: Bryan Satalino
Style
Each poster highlights the accomplishments of five women across computer sciences and features elements of their work embodied within the design. This includes snippets of code and patterns alluding to their technical contributions.
Stylistic choices include modern, futuristic, and geometric typography. Each woman is distinguished with a different color palette but unified through background elements pertaining to their accomplishments.
Katherine Johnson
Recognized for her historical role as one of the first black women to work as a NASA scientist. Her math helped send astronauts to the Moon and back.
Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel. She figured out the paths for the spacecraft to orbit Earth and to land on the Moon. NASA used Katherine's math, and it succeeded! NASA launched astronauts into orbit around Earth, hence the many design elements referring to space shuttles and entering orbit.
In 1970, Johnson worked on the Apollo 13 Moon mission. The diagram on the left shows this space shuttle and math contributing to this mission.
Scarlin Hernandez
Baltimore-based Scarlin Hernandez is currently a spacecraft engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope, used by NASA to discover new planets.
The telescope is set to launch in 2021 and will be harnessed to uncover new planets and the first stars after the dark ages. (period of time after the Big Bang - no stars, suns, galaxies - just a void of space. Hence the atmospheric, airy feeling of this poster design.
The hexagonal pattern relates to the James Webb Space Telescope design.
Margaret Hamilton
Lead NASA's efforts to land humans on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s with her software development.
She is an expert mathematician and computer science pioneer, credited with coining the term software engineering while developing the guidance and navigation system for the Apollo spacecraft as head of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory.
As a true pioneer of her work, the source code to this mission is layered behind her portrait, along with patterns of the Apollo spacecraft.
Joy Buolamwini
Ghanaian-American computer scientist and digital activist based at the MIT Media Lab. She founded the Algorithmic Justice to create a world with more equitable technology
She uncovers bias in artificial intelligence technology and develops practices for accountability. Buolamwini's TED Talk on algorithmic bias has been viewed over one million times and is featured in a new Netflix Documentary Coded Bias.
Her organization’s logo and mission are captured within the shield element, along with code specifically geared to cybersecurity programs.
A face-tracking design element within the poster captures her profile.
Megan Smith
American engineer and technologist. As the first lgbtq+ woman U.S CTO, Smith uses technology to advance policy, data, and innovation for the future of our nation.
As Chief Technology Officer of the United States, she guided President Obama’s team to use the power of data, innovation, and technology on behalf of the nation.
Smith recruited top tech talent to serve across government collaborating on pressing issues, from data science, AI, and open source, to inclusive economic growth and criminal justice reform.
As of March 2018, she is the CEO and Founder of a business shift7 that works on tech-forward, inclusive innovation for faster impact on systemic economic, social, and environmental challenges. Highlighting her expertise as a business owner, I covered business visuals such as graphs, her company name, and logo.
Posters in Public School Settings
Another goal of this project is to reach individuals in school settings who need:
Role models or representation in STEM
Early exposure to the resources (hardware, software, motivating teachers)
Encouragement and confidence they need to pursue careers in STEM fields like computer science
