Colours, Forms, & Patterns An illustrated bibliography of Mathilde Hertz.

I built a website and 32 animated graphics to illustrate the works of comparative psychologist Mathilde Hertz. The website is a visual guide to her works. Part web design, part graphic design, and part motion design, the project was a fun exercise in blending all these elements into one. At its core the project is a small piece of information design aimed at sparking curiosity and shedding some knowledge on the figure of Mathilde Hertz.

Motion Design, Graphic Design, Web Design

Sound & Music : Joe Watkinson

Website: https://mhertz.cargo.site

I first learnt of Mathilde Hertz’s existence when coming across one of her designs while looking into pollinators and in particular bees. I was immediately struck by the graphic quality of the design. Intrigued and curious to see if there were more, I stumbled upon a paper by Regina Kressley & Siegfried Jaeger, ‘Rediscovering a Missing Link: The Sensory Physiologist and Comparative Psychologist Mathilde Hertz (1891-1975) Siegfried Jaeger (2003).’, one of the few resources on Mathilde Hertz that are out there. After reading the paper I became fascinated not only by her life and story but also by the titles of her articles. A complete list of her works was cited at the end of the paper. As an animal psychologist, her research covered a wide range of animal subjects, and the titles of her articles had something of a poetic and unusual tone to them which immediately captured my imagination. Titles such as ‘A training of bees to water’ and ‘Disappointment and Expectations in Hermit Crabs.’ I quickly decided to start working on a visual representation of her bibliography, thinking about how best to represent her body of work and bring those titles to life.

Work

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