Knowing what it takes to create something completely new in a field of interest that seemingly never changes is not done quickly. We spent 3 years designing and creating the EA1 poster - anatomy of the musculoskeletal system, and during that process, we experienced the hardships and setbacks of the constant revisions and editions we had to go through before finally reaching our goal with the project.
The aforementioned is happily forgotten as we once again set out to create a new poster, which this time will become the ultimate poster on the muscular system, focusing exclusively on muscles.
The purpose of rethinking what a muscle poster is, is to create a solution to a problem we always encounter with existing muscle posters on the market; We feel lost and utterly frustrated by the total lack of structure, content in both text and visualization, which leaves us with no chance of gaining the overview of muscle groups that is the goal of a muscle poster.
The creation of EA5 the muscular system
The goal IS simple. We want to create a poster that does what a poster about the muscular system should do; namely, provide a logical overview of the muscles' location, name, and grouping, both visually and in nomenclature.
Work begins
We start by clarifying the content and scope of the poster and realize that we need to include everything. Muscles must be grouped, names must be written correctly and in the correct order, and we must see the muscles. We first try to reuse the ideas from our work with the EA1 poster, e.g., the lines between text and illustration, but we find that it becomes a big mess. Instead, we invent a very simple but smart system that fundamentally uses systematic colors and groupings, leaving the illustrations clear while the eye catches the connection between the colored numbers and groupings of muscle names. At the same time, we produce unique illustrations to visualize, for example, the muscles around the ribs and pelvis, just as we design a muscle figure with great detail in both the deep and superficial muscle layers.
The work spans over a year, with the same constant and gradual development of each section of the poster.
When we are finished, we thoroughly examine all existing muscle posters on the market that have disappointed us for so many years, and compare them with the result of our work on the EA5 muscular system poster. Our observations can be summarized as follows;
The 5 most important features of the EA5 muscle poster that differentiate it from existing muscle posters on the market are, in short:
1) All muscles in the human body can be grouped, which is important when learning and remembering them. On our poster, they are all logically grouped so there is no doubt which muscle group each individual muscle belongs to. Examples of these muscle groups are the chewing muscles of the jaw, the muscle groups of the neck, and the muscle groups of the thigh. The muscle groupings on the poster are completely identical to the muscle groupings in the textbooks used in medical studies in Denmark.
On older existing muscle posters, muscles are not grouped, and as an example, it is not possible to see that m. brachioradialis belongs to the extensor muscles of the forearm.
2) In many places on the poster, muscles are also named and illustrated in their layers or so-called compartments. As an example, the division of the neck muscles into layers (the superficial, the suprahyoid, the infrahyoid, the deep, and the scalene muscles) can be easily and quickly seen.
On older existing muscle posters, layering is not seen.
3) A logical and pedagogical learning system based on colors, precise numbering, and visual aids makes it easy and quick to identify each muscle group with its different muscles, as well as the display of these muscles on the poster's illustrations.
On older existing muscle posters, muscles and their names are randomly displayed using visually disturbing lines and often jumbled, which, for example, makes it very difficult to easily and quickly identify the 4 paired chewing muscles. This means that efforts to identify all these chewing muscles can be like "looking for a needle in a haystack".
4) The poster includes clinical details such as the directions in which the eye muscles move the eyeball, conditions in the rectus sheath regarding the arcuate line, the inguinal canal in men, the rotator cuff in the shoulder, and the functions of the laryngeal muscles (e.g., tension and relaxation of the vocal cords).
On older existing muscle posters, clinical details are not seen.
5) The poster comes in local language versions, where, for example, the Danish version has muscle names written in pure Latin, and all headings contain Danish terms. Furthermore, explanatory text is written in Danish. The English version comes in standard English for both titles, explanatory texts, and muscle names (Anglo-Latin).
When all is said, we believe that anyone who sets out to learn muscles and wants to keep their knowledge fresh in memory will love our new muscular system poster.
Find it here.
1 comment
Hej denne plakat er meget interessant for mig, da jeg igennem de sidste ca. 30 år har arbejdet med kropskorrektion, udfra en læring på et kursus, at vores kranie, hænder og fødder bærer lige mange knogle enheder, hvilket var en stor øjenåbner for mig. som har givet mig en indsigtsgivende læring omkring kroppen og kroppens bevægemønstre, samt samspil med vore organer. Hvad er Prisen på denne plakat ? mvh. Anni klint