School = layout ideas?
Thursday, May 21st, 2009As the end of the school year approaches, I really find myself caring less and less about life in general (and by life, I mean school… sad, isn’t it?). I think I’m at the point where I care just enough about my grades that I feel bad if I do badly in my classes, but I don’t actually care enough to actually put in any effort. Basically, I’m fucked; it’s a no-win situation. But with graduation in 4 weeks, I really can’t help it. I’ve got medical school lined up for next year, I’ve gotten honors and awards for my academic record, and I fail to see how my college GPA will actually matter at this point (although I do have a bit of paranoia that I’ll somehow fail all of my classes and get kicked out of medical school… but that’s another story).
Anyway, my recent return to the webdesigning scene has had profound effects on my ability to pay attention in class. Oddly enough, I’ve been getting layout ideas from my course material. For example, I’m taking a class called Topics in Biological Chemistry. Instead of paying attention to my lectures, I can’t help but look at the pretty crystal structures of the proteins and nucleic acids and think about making pretty layouts out of them. For example, you can see a beautiful tRNA structure to the left.
The same is true for the Origins of Modern Science class that I took last quarter. Look at these beautiful anatomy illustrations from Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body):
He also did a lot of illustrations of the skeleton and musculature, but those didn’t appeal to me to as much as these. Hopefully I’ll stop being lazy at some point and actually work on some of these layout ideas.
