A Design for Discovery
Addison Mayhew
February 6th, 2026
Major: New Media Design
Genre/Medium: Vector Illustration in Adobe Illustrator
About the work:
“A Design for Discovery” is a digital vector illustration inspired by the Psyche mission and humanity’s enduring pursuit of knowledge. Rendered in a blueprint-based visual language, the piece frames space exploration not as distant science fiction, but as the result of deliberate human ingenuity, courage, and care. At its core, the work asks the viewer to consider how far intention and curiosity can carry us—and how something once thought unreachable can become tangible through planning, collaboration, and belief.
The blueprint aesthetic is central to the meaning of the piece. Blueprints represent the unseen labor behind discovery: the calculations, revisions, failures, and quiet moments of problem-solving that precede every monumental achievement. By presenting Psyche—a metal-rich asteroid believed to be the exposed core of a planetesimal—as a drafted, measured object, the illustration emphasizes that exploration is not accidental; it is engineered. Every line, label, and orbit is a testament to human persistence and our desire to understand the ancient structures that shaped our solar system. Read more…
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