Rocketday works with many clients in environmental conservation, and we use phrases like “protecting nature”, by which we tend to mean living organisms, such as bluebirds or salmon or ancient forests.

However, when I talk to subatomic physicists, I hear that word “nature” being used in a different way. In those conversations, “nature” is the entire universe — from a bluebird, to a lifeless rock, to a star. And the goal of subatomic physics is to understand nature at a fundamental level.

My parents both have a relationship to this field. My mother has a Masters in nuclear physics, one of the first women to get this at UVic. My father spent years researching special relativity, then general relativity, and other theoretical aspects of modern physics. So I heard a lot about these fields as I grew up, though the science is so non-intuitive and weird that I couldn’t follow much of it. But I always held a great deal of respect for this work — work that aimed to understand the basic building blocks of the universe.

website, design and code by Rocketday, 2018

I loved working with the team at the Institute of Particle Physics, building their new website in 2018. Then in 2021, loved working with some of the same people on the Canadian Subatomic Physics Long Range Plan report, which I designed with support from my friend, the talented Joe Hedges.

For both projects, I spent a many hours exploring the image libraries of various labs and institutions around the world that Canadians are a part of, collecting the photos we used in the design. Through the whole design process, I was amazed and fascinated that humans are able to explore this tiny, tiny magic which everything is built from.

covers and sample spreads from the Long Range Report, 2021

screenshots of the website version of the report, 2021

Download the summary report (PDF)