Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Title of entry: UCSF Magazine, Summer 2025 Cover: “The Plastic Inside Us”

About this entry: For the summer 2025 issue of UCSF Magazine, our feature article focused on microplastics research and what the presence of microplastics means for our health. The in-house design team, with the direction of Pentagram Design Austin, turned to Aurora Robson, an artist known for transforming plastic waste into sculptural warnings and wonders. Her cover piece — a human torso assembled entirely from salvaged plastic — offers a striking commentary on the entanglement between our bodies and the environment. “I see plastic debris as a global, anthropogenic, environmental nightmare that could be transformed into a dream,” Robson says. Her cover reframes this crisis as a biological reality that science is only beginning to fully understand. The photo of the sculpture was taken by Marshall Coles.