7. Aesthetics, Branding & Visuals
Having a visual identity matters, both for communicating research and for building your career. The lab has a style I’ve curated, inspired by U of T’s brand colours plus some personal choices.
During your training you’ll want to develop your own taste. Browse Google Fonts and pick what you like: a display font, a technical font, a body font. Pick colors you like. Still, it’s helpful to start from a sensible default, and the lab style is that default.
Figures #
Move quick, perfect later. A typical paper’s figures follow an arc:
- Figure 1 tells the problem simply, like a 30-second elevator pitch.
- Figures 2 to 3 are conceptual or data-centric: how you’re solving the problem and what the data looks like.
- Figures 4 to 8 are quantitative evidence.
Sketch on a napkin or whiteboard first. There’s never enough time to make figures perfect from the start, so make a good-enough version with code (SVG or PNG), then fine-tune in Inkscape or GIMP.
Be mindful of how color tells the story, and keep accessibility in mind. The Seaborn color palettes tutorial and ColorBrewer are good references.
Typography #
| Role | Font | Weights |
|---|---|---|
| Display and titles | Spectral (serif) | 400, 600 |
| Body and UI | Fira Sans (sans-serif) | 300, 400, 500 |
| Technical and data | Fira Code (monospace) | 400, 500 |
Color palette #
We use a custom 12-color qualitative palette in the same vein as ColorBrewer’s Dark2, Set2, and Pastel2, merged with U of T brand colours. It comes in three variations, with gray anchored at the end. Use Dark for lines, text, and markers on white; Set for filled areas and bars; Pastel for backgrounds and highlights.
Templates #
Slide and poster templates: [TBD]