Overview
A poetic, diagrammatic take on the seasons, this poster explains the earth’s tilt toward the sun at three levels of education.
Each level is drawn in a style suited to its audience and its content: illustration for the youngest readers, a schematic for the next and equations at the center.
Designer and Illustrator
Primary
Seasonal cycle
The four distinct seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter are recognizable in the temperate and polar regions of the earth. The seasons are a cyclical phenomenon characterized by changes in the temperature, daylight hours and appearance of plant and animal life upon the earth.
Secondary
Solar flux schematic
The seasons arise because the earth’s axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees, so the northern and southern hemispheres receive different amounts of sunlight as the earth orbits the sun.
Tertiary
Elliptical orbit equations
The earth travels around the sun in an elliptical path which can be described by the equation of motion for the earth’s orbit. The equation of motion is related to the solution to the force equation for the earth sun system.
Details
Close-ups from the finished poster: the three levels nested into one composition, an earth tilted among the sun’s rays and the title strip that carries each level’s blurb.
Outcome
The poster was printed as a large-format piece.