- Fiona Martin
- Pacific Northwest's great climate moderators
- Procreate, Adobe Illustrator
- Signature: Illustration by Fiona Martin. © 2024 The Seattle Times.
Collection: Botanical Art x
One of the easiest, most economical ways we can offset climate change is by protecting mature and old-growth forests. Trees are natural climate moderators, silently carrying out the process of photosynthesis every day. Old-growth trees are especially valuable; they store more carbon because of their mass and continue to sequester carbon for centuries. Conifers like Douglas firs (illustrated here) photosynthesize year-round. I was excited to work with environmental reporter Lynda Mapes on this illustration because as far as I can tell, there are few (if any) published illustrations of evergreen photosynthesis. Most diagrams show deciduous leaves. My primary goal was to make the science accessible and engaging for Seattle Times readers—a broader audience outside of academics—via functional design and eye-catching illustrations.
Scrolling version:
Main bar:
- Collections: Botanical Art, Ecology, Infographics
About the Artist: Fiona Martin (United States) x
Fiona Martin is an award-winning graphic artist and science illustrator at The Seattle Times. She is a 2025 Pulitzer Finalist for Local Reporting for a project describing barriers to salmon migration in urban streams. In 2024 she won an Award of Excellence in the Society for News Design for an illustrated story celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. Fiona specializes in digital and vector illustrations, infographics, data visualization, mapping and layout design, and also enjoys working with traditional media including graphite, pen-and-ink, watercolor, and acrylic.
Prior to the Times, Fiona served as Senior Illustration Editor at the nonprofit scientific review publisher, Annual Reviews (14 years), and freelanced from her studio Visualizing Science (20 years). Clients included government agencies (NOAA Climate Program Office, NPS), Monterey Bay Research Institute, Princeton University Press, and authors of scientific books and research papers.
Fiona was born with a rare genetic hearing loss in both ears, but she hasn't let her deafness hold her back. In public schools and in the workplace, she learned to adapt using a combination of speech reading and technology. Defying expectations, Fiona graduated as valedictorian of her high school class, obtained a B.S. in Marine Biology (summa cum laude) from the University of California in Santa Cruz, and then pursued a Graduate Certificate in Scientific Illustration. Upon graduation she completed dual internships with the Channel Islands National Park in California and Electronic Publishing Company in New York City.
Fiona resides in the Seattle area, Washington, with her husband and two girls, and enjoys swimming, kayaking, yoga, culinary gardening, and traveling as much as possible—whether it's local road trips in the beautiful Pacific Northwest or free diving in the Caribbean.
Portfolio: https://www.visualizingscience.com