Winning the Superbowl of Science

Life Biosciences engage me to win the battle for the December 2020 cover of Nature Magazine. If you’re a scientist or a science-based organization, being featured on the cover of the world’s most prestigious science journal is the equivalent of winning the Superbowl. We heard that NASA was our top competitor. The assignment was to make a paper from Life’s founder, David Sinclair as compelling as possible. The cover art was the key to victory. Sinclair and his team set out to prove that it was possible to reboot the epigenome and effectively reverse the aging process. The paper documented the team’s breakthrough work on the optic nerve of mice. They were able to take sight away and then restore it. Astonishing stuff! More than a dozen complete cover concepts were developed, some of which pushed well into the implications of hacking life’s preprogrammed limitations. Ultimately, we successfully built a compelling representation of Life BioSciences and Sinclair’s work. Per Nature, the winning idea balanced the suggestion of cellular restoration and the reversal of time without getting too literal.

Jeff’s roles: Creative Director, Designer, Copywriter, Illustrator