Trained as a medical illustrator, Toronto artist Shelley Chen combines her love of both art and science to create uniquely styled imagery for a range of applications including patient education materials, academic publications, magazines, games, blogs, and more. From highly accurate clinical materials to narrative-led comics, Shelley’s versatility, talent and experience will give any project the creative lift it needs.
Proper understanding of complex medical information is critical for informed decision making, behaviour change, and prevention of some foreseeable problems. In her experiences working in healthcare-focused visual communication roles, Shelley thoughtfully combines illustration with graphic design to help clients communicate their medical contents in more engaging and easy-to-understand formats. Shelley has a Masters in Biomedical Communications from the University of Toronto, and draws her inspiration from both instructional and entertainment illustrators alike.
Approach
When creating an illustration, she focuses on finding the most effective and compelling way to communicate the key messaging. She works almost entirely digitally, sketching and finishing her pieces in Photoshop and Illustrator.Styles
Shelley is a flexible illustrator able to work in a variety of styles depending on the brief. She often uses a clean and clear graphic style for her educational pieces to facilitate understanding but may switch to a more dramatic style in editorials pieces for more visual impact.