Waving paint strokes in blues, greens, gold, and white with flecks of paint across them

Science made visual

Custom illustrations and infographics to communicate your research

About Emma

I’m Dr Emma Rehn (pronounced “ren”), an artist and research communicator based in Cairns, Australia. I have a scientific background in archaeology and palaeoenvironmental science (environments of the past). I create illustrations, infographics, and cartoon-style artwork as well as a range of communication products to promote, support, and share research projects and findings.

Please get in touch to discuss your graphics needs or potential research communication projects!

Services

A digital illustration of a turtle on a beach, water splashing as it reaches the ocean, tracks in the sand behind it

Including tiles for sharing across social media channels, technical illustrations for diagrams, and podcast cover art – click to view more

An infographic showing the past and present conditions of a wetland and a sediment core showing the changes through time

Including visualising key concepts and summarising new publications – click here to view more

A logo showing a simplified map of Australia in yellow with pale flowers and leaves protruding around the edges. Red block letters atop the map read "VEGEMAP" and the background is black

Logos

Including bringing your ideas to life or developing a unique design – see VegeMap

Testimonials

Dr Jacob Martin

Forrest Research Foundation

“Working with Emma was an absolute delight! From the moment we shared our initial project brief, she displayed exceptional creativity presenting us with a diverse array of options. Emma was able to swiftly grasp our modification requests and execute them to improve our vision. She even managed to add that perfect touch to make the quokka appear irresistibly charming and adorable. I wholeheartedly recommend Emma to anyone seeking a fun and professional experience. We couldn’t be happier with the results.”


Dr Alice Buhrich

Cultural heritage professional

“I engaged Emma to help communicate values for elements of a First Nations cultural landscape. Emma quickly grasped the requirements and exceeded my expectations in communicating some quite complex ideas through her illustrations. Emma was efficient, responsive & professional. I look forward to working with Emma again and highly recommend her work.”


Dr John Tibby

The University of Adelaide

“The entire process of working with Emma Rehn was an absolute pleasure.  Emma was able to take abstract concepts and make them “spring to life” in ways I could not envisage.  I use Emma’s infographic to pitch for funding from people unfamiliar with my research.  Hence, the work needs to be informative but also simple to understand.  The process of modifying the original idea to final product was an absolute pleasure, and I’m looking forward to working with Emma again.”


Dr Vanessa Moss

CSIRO / Astronomical Society of Australia

“We contracted Emma’s services for a custom logo, themed graphics to decorate our virtual spaces and live sketches of prize talks during the ASA Annual Scientific Meeting. Working with her was so great! She was super receptive to feedback throughout the logo design process and everyone was thrilled with the final outcome. The live sketches went down so well – the prizewinners loved them and everyone saw them as a huge highlight of the session. Highly recommend her and look forward to working together again in the future!”


Dr Tahlia Perry

The University of Adelaide

“I had the pleasure of working with Emma to design a logo for a new citizen science project. Emma understood the brief and immediately provided mockups for our team to run with. It was a wonderful collaborative experience and she worked hard to make sure we were happy with every single detail, managing sometimes conflicting ideas. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to work with and the final design is outstanding.”


Dr Georgia Stannard and Dr Erin Mein

La Trobe University and Flinders University

“Collaborating with Emma on the Deep Time Detectives program has been exceptional: pure professionalism. Not only are her artworks exactly what we requested, but she was happy to modify things as required. Emma’s scientific expertise and artistic talent come together perfectly, making her an ideal colleague for science communications collaborations. We are so very pleased with our wonderful videos and we look forward to working with Emma again in the near future.”

Highlights Gallery

  • A digital graphic titled "Pint of Science Australia 10 years" showing animals and objects floating in space on a purple and blue background. In the centre, a whale swims out of a pint glass, with a koala and a frog in spacesuits on the left and right, respectively. Decorations include coral, stars, a book, planets, strands of DNA, and a radio telescope
  • A cartoon drawing of a quokka wearing yellow glasses, smiling at the viewer and holding a sign. Text reads: 'Clever Quokkas'. A yellow and teal logo is in the top left corner, for Forrest Research Foundation, and the background is dark teal
  • Title reads: Did you know? Giraffes sleep around 4.5 hours a night. Four comic panels show a giraffe talking to a tired-looking meerkat. Giraffe: Are you okay? You look tired. Meerkat: Yeah, I only got 5 hours' sleep last night. Giraffe: Oh, and that's... bad?
  • A digital logo made up of block letters containing illustrations in front of a starry Milky Way background. The letters spell "ASA2024" and contain a variety of astronomy-themed graphics including a radiotelescope, observatory, planets, and a galaxy
  • A digital illustration showing white lineart on a black background, depicting three pint glasses filled with various objects and each containing a frog
  • Three black and white illustrations of anterior, lateral (midline facing) and midline (lateral facing) views of half of a human maxilla
  • Two vertical-oriented cartoon panels. The first shows stratigraphic layers down through the dirt, including artefacts. Text on the left says 'STRATIGRAPHY' with each letter aligned to a layer from top to bottom. A cartoon girl on the surface says "Analysing the way layers have built up tells us about what people have done here through time!" The second panel shows complex stratigraphic layers including pits and burrows cutting into deeper layers, with artefacts and the letters S, T, T, I, P, Y, G scattered throughout. A cartoon girl on the surface says "...but it can get complicated!"

Contact me

Send me an email or fill out the contact form here to get in touch about your research communication needs

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