Counteracting coagulation

At times, my medical background gets to inform my design work. For my wonderful coworker Amal Abdi, this resulted in a thesis design where the main research focus meets the warm colors and intricate motifs of Andalusian architecture.

Amal focused her research on the development of inhibitors in hemophilia A. Hemophilia patients lack a protein that is necessary to form blood clots. Treatment of hemophilia includes administering the missing protein on a regular basis. However, in some (but not all) cases, the body develops antibodies against the treatment. Amal’s work explores why this happens, in order to find ways to prevent and combat this problem.

Among the first doctors to write about hemophilia was a 10th-century Moorish surgeon from Andalusian Spain. This little nugget of medical history, combined with Amal’s cultural background, inspired the cover. A “Y” shape, which is how antibodies are usually stylized, formed the basis of the pattern illustration. The inner layout uses the cover pattern on the title pages, paired with warm red accents throughout the book.

If you would like to know more about Amal’s research, you can find her thesis on the Amsterdam UMC website.