Minimalist Posters Honor Scientists And Their Great Discoveries

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

NewtonWe’ve seen a lot of “minimalist poster” art over the years, images designed to evoke the essence of a thing with as simple an image as possible. Usually they’re referencing popular movies or TV shows, but a graphic designer who goes by “Hydrogene” has taken the minimalist concept and applied it to some folks far more deserving of remembrance than, say, the makers of the Transformers films: scientists and mathematicians whose work has helped steer us into our modern age.

Working within the minimalist framework, Hydrogene has created many different subsets, ranging from scientists as well known as Isaac Newton (up top) to more obscure folks such as Leonhard Euler (I admit, I had to Google him).

Euler

He also delves into more specific slices of the scientific world, such as the contributions of Muslim scientists…

Algebra

IbnSina

…or pioneering female scientists such as Marie Curie and Sally Ride.

Curie

SallyRide

And this one is for Louis Braille. I’ll give you three guesses what he’s known for. (Hint: it’s not “inventing the Lite-Brite.”)

Braille

One of my favorite of his collections is “Six Misattributed Inventions and Their Actual Inventors.” I don’t know if these folks would feel better about getting their due in minimalist poster form, but hey, it’s something at least. Although nowhere does Hydrogene credit anyone for creating Flubber, but that was totally me. (Disney stole my life story, I swear…)

Penicillin

Phone

Radio

Telescope

X-Ray

And okay, as much as we love the science posters, we’d be remiss for not pointing out that Hydrogene has done the more mainstream thing and created posters for movies as well. I’m particularly digging his takes on Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Ghostbusters, and Donnie Darko.

Prometheus

Ghostbusters

Darko

You can check out all of Hydrogene’s art on his tumblr.