Jen Christiansen

@jenchristiansen.com

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Information designer / art director / visual journalist / science communicator • Author of Building Science Graphics • Former gigs include graphics @ Scientific American & design @ National Geographic • www.jenchristiansen.com • Ask me about pulsar charts

Animated version of the June 2026 cover of Scientific American. Colorful probability waves and qubits emerge from a static computer processing unit.
Animated version of the May cover of Scientific American, featuring an illustration of a heart in flickering flames.
Gif flips back and forth between two issues of Scientific American Magazine.
Photo of an issue of Scientific American on a wood surface flanked by a plant. The cover illustration is a woman in an urban scene surrounded by AI-enabled tech. Coverline is “Life in the Age of AI.”
Exhibit intro text on a wall: “Invisible, Novel, and Complex”
January and February issues of Scientific American magazine, with light flickering across them through a window. The Jan cover features a robot. The Feb issue features a grid of stylized and colorful brain cross sections.
Blackboard with equations and drawings of mathematical concepts—including Penrose Triangles. The ledge under the board holds chalk and an abandoned coffee cup.
Billboard-style painting with title LA ON THE MOVE. In the background, an art deco ceiling and chandelier is visible.
Glowing mineral in cube form with vibrant orange, purple and red coloration.
Photo of a framed piece of artwork. The overall impression is that of a cut and polished agate stone, with bands of color building inward. Upon closer inspection, it’s clear that the bands are stitched together with thread. Further inspection reveals that the colorful bands are made of thin plastic materials, including food bags.
Chart breaks down textile fiber types into 2 main categories: Natural (plant and animal products) and human-made fibers (naturally-derived polymers and synthetic polymers)
A chart maps the stages of clothing production—and beyond. The categories are: design and concept, fiber production, yarn and fabric production, textile production, consumption, and end of life.
Screenshot text: Our world itself has changed, as has our understanding of it, its processes and inner systems -- but never before has the pace of this change been so fast. In the context of this acceleration, we want to explore the concept of resilience -- the ability to bounce back, to endure, to adapt. What does this process of transformation look like? What can we gain from it? And how can information design help us see clearer?
Hand holding up a book titled _Reefs of Time: What fossils reveal about coral survival_ in front of a brick academic building with “Burton Hall” chiseled above the door.
Square painting of a gray cat with yellow eyes in spare, bold and expressive brushstrokes. The painting is on an orange wall, next to a tree branch supporting shelves. One shelf holds a blooming Maranta Leuconeura plant.
Nearly full view of ~200 x 131 inch shimmering fabric-like sheet made of folded red liquor labels connected to eachother by tiny loops of copper wire. Sheet is hung on a wall, draping down and resting on the floor.
Large black and white silkscreen (112 x 112 inches) straight-on view of a woman’s face, the left half in positive and the right half in negative. Three strips of red are painted across the middle, with these words in white italics sans serif type: Your body / is a / battleground.
Oval painted with black and white dots and wavy lines, portraying a mirror in graphic pop art style.
Screenshot of book promotion page for Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without a Bullhorn) by Omkari L. Williams. It includes a colorful and bold book cover alongside this text: “In this age of activism, many people who don't necessarily want to lead a movement or join a protest march are left wondering, "How can I make an impact?" In Micro Activism, former political consultant turned activism coach Omkari L. Williams shares her expertise in empowering introverts and highly sensitive people to help others find the activist roles that will be most satisfying and effective for them.”
Photo of a portion of a magazine page. Title of story is “Progress toward Gender Equality.” Chart shows levels and trends of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 5.
A series of time lapse videos show a top-down view of a sketchbook as the layout plan and content details are drawn in with pencil. The videos the fades into a series of digital layouts, showing the progression of content and style, ending on a view of the final product—a magazine page.
A matrix showing the number of deaths between 1998 and 2023 by age (less than one year old, age one, two, three, four, five, six or more, and unknown), context (Forgotten, Intentionally Left, Gained Access, and Unknown) and total by age and by context. Deaths are highest in the “less than one year old” age group and among the “Forgotten” category, with numbers increasing in the “Gained Access” category for older children.
Photo of a book on a wood bench. Text on cover: “Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination // Sadie Dingfelder”
Input-output model of an economy traces the flow of goods and services among sectors in a chart that could be described as a brightly colored self-feeding Sankey diagram.
Screenshot with this text: When I ask vos Savant, the writer of the 1990 Parade column, what she thinks the enduring lesson of the Monty Hall dilemma is, her answer doesn’t involve competing theories in statistics. The puzzle, she says, is about humility. “It promotes a dandy demonstration of a human frailty,” vos Savant explains, “the disbelief that we could be wrong and the tenacity, sometimes aggrieved, with which we hold our earlier judgments, especially when we feel certain.”
View from a peak in Joshua Tree, looking out over mountains and hills dotted with high desert vegetation. Blue sky with white clouds overhead. Figure in foreground wearing a pack, hat and hiking posts.
Paw print in snow, about 2.5x the length of the quarter included for scale. Four toes and a pad visible.
Photo of book sitting on textile. Text on cover: CHART SPARK, Harness your creativity in data communication to stand out and innovate, Alli Torban
The Art of Insight book held closed on a flat surface by two gray cat paws.
Photo of a book sitting on a gray cushion. Book cover includes a profile of a man with gray hair and a baseball cap looking towards a geometric LED light installation, bathed in blue ambient light.
Cropped view of an art panel set upon a cement floor. Light and shadows on the black on black textured surface create the impression of a viewing a planet's surface from far above—evocative of a moonscape.
Looking up at a baroque ceiling with circular skylights framed by ornate arches, 7 large boulder-like rock samples float above your head.
Photo of a slide on a screen behind a presenter: green tree canopy illustrations (viewed from above) transition into mathematical drawings.
View up a stairwell, painted white with natural light filtering through, contrasting with black wrought iron banister details.
Reentry schematic: capsule from Osiris-Rex spacecraft returns to earth via parachute.
Close up of over thirty gourd-like white sculptural bird houses. Overall shape is similar for each. Upon closer inspection, it’s clear that door shape, position, overhangs and perches vary. Some are round, others tear-shaped, etc.
Seaside view. Tall grasses in foreground. Three posts are each holding around 30 white sculptural gourd-like bird houses. Each are numbered, and slightly different. Several small black birds hover around them.
Screenshot from the film. View from above, looking down at two people sitting on a blanket on the grass. Objects include picnic foods, a few books, and an issue of Scientific American.
Gray shorthair cat with yellow eyes sitting on a gray chair with its ears perked up, looking at the camera.