Eliza Wolfson is a scientist AND illustrator who turns invisible science worlds into shiny books kids want to explore...

Imagine

that!

Contact Eliza

A cartoon drawing of a feast of Y shaped friendly bacteria of different colours sat at a long table eating a meal in their village green. It is dusk and the houses lights are on and there are red lanterns strung up all around. The houses look a bit like animals (a bee, monkey, chicken are the main ones). Other bacteria are coming to the feast from another part of the village.

What does that look like?

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Steph the cartoony yellow Staphylococcus smiles and waves at you.

A purplish background with symbols of innovation and biology and anatomy and biotechnology are overlaid with whirls of different coloured microbes of different shapes and sizes. The main colours are orange, yellow, reddish purple, bluish purple and teal.

The cavernous metropolis was mired in thick sludge, beneath which waved a forest of limbless trees. We motored through the sludge down to a meadowlike clearing - from there we broke into the ark's undercity. Salmonella submarines break through the sludge at the top, past the anchors of other microbes that attach to the intestinal cells, towards a clearing on the cell surface. Through the gloom, the headlights reveal submarines being caught in cell protrusions, dragging them down, but we also see submarines drilling down to get access to the same place, the undercity.

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Eliza Wolfson is riding a massive big blue bacterium with three eyes and a happy expression. It is swimming them through a yellow splashy background. Eliza has purple hair, light blue skin, a stripy pink t shirt and shoes and purple trousers

About me

Frustrated by science illustrations that look nice but miss the point?

Me too! I've practically lived in the lab, so I can spot what matters and distill it into fun artwork without getting it all wrong. I have more than a decade of experience using that know-how as a freelance illustrator with clients across 4 continents of the world...

If you want to turn real science into worlds and characters kids want to get to know, then you’re in the right place. Eliza Wolfson science illustration sits in the overlap between scientific understanding and visual imagination. Why choose?

Because I'm a scientist myself, I draw the science by getting inside it. This allows me to make invisible or complicated ideas clear, easy to follow and full of character!

But why?

I love that mind-blown feeling of awe that you get from finding out something new - that 'woah' moment. The brain is practically fizzing with the possibilities!

I want to spark those ‘woah' moments in kids, because as we grow up, we notice less about the world. Helping children to understand and appreciate the hidden scientific wonders all around them keeps that window open longer, where they're engaged, with an open and curious mind.

Imagine
that...

I explain science with pictures

I have over a decade of experience in visual science communication, working full time as a freelance illustrator, so I think like a scientist and communicate like an illustrator.

I'm a real scientist!

I have a PhD in microbiology, and nearly 20 years experience boiling down complicated ideas into their simplest form.

I'm suitably daft...

I make work that is fun enough to make children look twice, but accurate enough to actually learn something.

Science is for everyone

I can turn confusion into curiosity, helping kids feel clever, capable and included, because they get it.

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A jekyll and hyde bacterium wearing a hat is holding a smoking green test tube. One side of the bacterium is blue and worried looking (Dr. Jekyll), the other side is red and fierce looking (Mr Hyde). The dark background is glowing from the light of the test tube, with indistinct blue bacteria floating around

Why work
with me?

“Working with Eliza was a joy and if you’re looking for a brilliant illustrator with ideas to bring your science to life,

I can’t recommend her highly enough.’’

Professor Lindsay Hall, Chair of microbiome science, University of Birmingham, UK

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