Medical illustrators win big at annual conference

August 29, 2014 | Arts, Features, News, UToday, Medicine and Life Sciences
By Lindsay Mahaney



Designing layers of skin peeled back to reveal muscles and bones is part of the daily routine for Roy Schneider and Tony Floyd-Bradstock. However, The University of Toledo medical illustrators traded skin for plaster for their award-winning piece “Wall Repair.”

Roy Schneider and Tony Floyd-Bradstock posed for a photo by their award-winning “Wall Repair.”

Roy Schneider and Tony Floyd-Bradstock posed for a photo by their award-winning “Wall Repair.”

The two recently were recognized for the project at the 2014 Association of Medical Illustrators conference.

“Wall Repair” won two Salon Awards at the conference: Members Choice Award, which is voted on by association members as best in show, and Advertising and Marketing Promotional Award, which is for an illustration deserving recognition of achievement.

Schneider said the original concept was conceived as an advertisement for Owens Corning insulation products. The idea was to design the anatomy of a house wall, which they accomplished by creating an image of two wall spaces — one with Owens Corning Fiberglas and a second with a competitor’s insulation, he said.

While Owens Corning never used the design, the piece inspired Schneider and led to a big break in medical illustration: designing a virtual dissection program, Anatomy and Physiology Revealed, which eventually was published by McGraw-Hill. The project was a collaborative effort of the Department of Neurosciences and the Center for Creative Instruction and received the Dr. Frank Netter Award in 2000.

When they were told there was space to publicly share their work in their own building, Schneider and Floyd-Bradstock brainstormed and got the idea to reuse some of the concepts from the program to create “Wall Repair.” Check out their art in the Center for Creative Education Room 2130 on Health Science Campus.

Schneider said they were trying to combine the medical aspects of a virtual dissection and the original concept of a wall in a “fun and playful way.”

“A lot of people can’t handle the blood,” Floyd-Bradstock said. “So you see it as a surgery and get kind of grossed out; you then realize it’s not pink muscle.”

“It’s only insulation,” Schneider added with a laugh.

Schneider and Floyd-Bradstock collaborated on the project, which was a six-foot by eight-foot space, along with UT alumnus Josh Klein, a former medical illustration intern.

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