Express Yourself
Ever wondered how your facial nerve works to help you form expressions? This patient education piece dives into the basic anatomy of the facial nerve (cranial nerve 7) and the muscles of facial expression. This also includes a special callout talking about Bell’s Palsy and how you might notice facial paralysis.
Clients
Shelley Wall (Professor, University of Toronto)
Kristy Cheung (Content expert)
Date
December 2025
Role
Research, Content Development, Visual Development, Layout
Format
2-page spread for print in patient education booklet
Audience
Lay audience
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, & Procreate
Research
I decided to explore facial paralysis and used this project to expand upon my knowledge. The goals of the project were to consolidate basic neuroanatomy knowledge, create engaging, accurate visual information suitable for a patient audience, practice writing text at a level appropriate for a patient audience and create and work together on a shared group stylesheet.
Stylesheet
Our class worked together, dividing the tasks up to develop a cohesive style guide that all pieces followed. This included clear colours, language, layout and illustration guidelines. I help develop the vector illustration guides and drew the example figure. We went with a monochromatic stye with colour to highlight important elements and faded borders to avoid harsh cuts.
Sketching
I went through a couple different sketches in order to figure out the best layout that would allow for clear reading order and flow of information. It was a challenge to figure out how to highlight both the nerve and the muscles of facial expression while making sure no labels would cross the face and obscure important information.
Version 1. This version was slightly cramped and there was extra information that did not fit well given how large the hero images are.
Version 2. This version tried adding space but the leader lines crossed over the fold in the page and were further than regular (issues with principal of proximity).
Version 3. This version gave space for the list of branches on the facial nerve but the relationship between the nerve and the muscles was not as clear as I wanted.
Version 4. Comprehensive sketch and final layout.
Rendering
After landing on the layout I was happy with, I moved onto colour & rendering. The largest challenge was making sure the branches of the facial nerve were distinct and clear against the muscles of facial expression.
Translation - French
Information accessibility is extremely important and many people lose out due to language restrictions. Given the time, I wanted to translate this piece into my second language: French. This proved a fun challenge that let me practice my writing skills little more!