Hi reddit! Creating effective visuals to explain your research can be intimidating but also critical to communicating your ideas and findings. I’m passionate about science communication and I’m here today to share a few trade secrets on how to create better journal figures, science illustrations, presentation slides, graphical abstracts and more! All it takes is a few tips and tricks, some help from available tools (or experts!), and a little bit of patience. AMA! Brief bio: Shiz Aoki graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine through the Art as Applied to Medicine program after obtaining a B.Sc. in pre-medical sciences, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Illustration from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. In 2010, she was hired straight out of school as a science illustrator for National Geographic Magazine at their HQ in Washington, DC. Having grown up in Toronto, she eventually moved back to the city where she continues to actively work for the magazine while operating her own biomedical communications company, Anatomize Studios. She has serviced other renowned clients including Scientific American, HHMI, NIH, McGraw Hill, Stanford University, and many others. Aoki hopes to democratize the process of visual science communication to scientists at all stages of their careers. Her team is currently creating new tools and resources for scientists to create science visuals (such as graphical abstracts, journal figures, presentation slides). Please email [email protected] if you’re interested in participating or learning more about this new initiative! Follow her on Twitter: @ShizAoki Learn more at www.biorender.io EDIT: Thanks everyone for all the great questions! This was a lot of fun. I’ll glance back in a few days but if you want to chat, please feel free to email me!