Information design for the Amyloidosis Research Consortium — translating a complex protein misfold cascade into a patient-accessible 2-page leaflet.
Context
Brief: Design and illustrate a patient-facing educational leaflet on AA amyloidosis — a serious but underdiagnosed complication of chronic inflammation. The audience: patients recently diagnosed, and their families. The constraint: the mechanism is genuinely complex, and the science cannot be simplified.
The challenge
AA amyloidosis happens when chronic inflammation causes the cells to overproduce a protein called SAA (serum amyloid A). Normally, SAA is broken down once inflammation resolves. In AA amyloidosis, a fragment — AA — breaks off and misfolds into insoluble fibrils that deposit progressively in the kidneys, liver, spleen, and gut.
The design problem: how do you make a three-step molecular cascade (inflammation → SAA overproduction → AA fibril deposition) legible to someone who has just been told their kidneys may be failing — without reducing the science to the point where it misleads?
The answer is information hierarchy, not simplification. Every element earns its place by answering a specific question the patient actually has.
Approach
The leaflet follows the logic of the disease, not a generic “what is / symptoms / treatment” template. Four sections:
- What is AA amyloidosis? — the definition, scoped precisely (complication of chronic inflammation, rare even among at-risk patients)
- How does AA develop? — the SAA cascade, illustrated mechanistically: healthy state → prolonged inflammation → AA fibril formation → organ deposition
- Signs, symptoms, and diagnosis — organ involvement map, key markers, biopsy requirement
- Prevention and treatment — the central insight: treat the underlying inflammation, not the deposits
The visual anchor is the SAA mechanism diagram on page one. It is drawn to be accurate at the protein-biology level (I did check the 3d structure of SAA, yes) — correct spatial logic, correct directionality — while remaining accessible to a non-scientist reader.
From first draft to final
The design went through three distinct phases over six weeks.
Draft 1 — establishing the content architecture
The first version was built in Fresco drawing directly with the customer. The priority was getting the information hierarchy right: what does a patient need to understand, and in what order? Layout, colour, and visual style were deliberately left rough at this stage. The illustration was intially design for web only and we were thinking to follow the long form I used for previous infographcis.
Draft 2 — establishing visual language
By January 2025, the design had moved into Illustrator and the visual language was established: the SAA cascade diagram, the organ involvement illustration, and the typographic system. The main outstanding work was refinement of the graphics to support the flow of information while keeping the story as simple as possible for non-experts.
Final — delivered for print and web
Mid way through the process it was clear that the final product needed to be printed so we switched to a 2 page layout, cleared for both print (300 dpi) and web (72 dpi) export. The cascade diagram on page one is accurate at the protein-biology level — correct spatial relationships, correct directionality — while remaining navigable to a non-scientist reader.
Delivered as a print-ready and web-optimised 2-page PDF. Produced in Adobe Illustrator.
Scientific content reviewed with the ARC team, developed with contribution from Ann Payne and Jessica Pastor.