About
MXWLL is an explanation design studio for science, data, and the complex. We make difficult ideas genuinely clear - through interactive visualisation, scientific illustration, and systematic design. We don't simplify. We clarify.
FOUNDER
Simon Tyler
Designer, illustrator, and author. Biochemistry degree from Imperial College London, with further study in the History and Philosophy of Science at University College London.
That combination of scientific training and design practice shapes everything MXWLL does. Understanding the subject matter - not just the brief - changes what questions get asked. A designer who understands the physics can tell when a simplification has become a distortion.
Based in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex.
THE WORK
Visualisation, illustration, explanation
We work with research institutions, publishers, science museums, and organisations who need to communicate complex ideas to non-specialist audiences.
The work spans interactive data visualisation, scientific illustration, and structured explanation design. Sometimes these are combined in a single project. Often the most effective work integrates all three.
We are a small studio. We take on a limited number of projects each year and work directly with the people who commission us. If you are working with MXWLL, you are working with Simon.
Selected credentials
BOOKS
Author and illustrator of four books on science and technology, published by Laurence King, Faber & Faber, and Pavilion:
- Gizmo - Laurence King
- Bugs - Pavilion
- Adventures in Space - Pavilion
- Emergency Vehicles - Faber & Faber
SYSTEMS DESIGN
Pictogram system for Network Rail's UK station wayfinding, in collaboration with Margaret Calvert.
Scientific poster and publication design systems. The MXWLL design system for real-time scientific data visualisation.
INTERACTIVE
WebGL-based visualisers for stellar cartography (50,000 stars from the ESA Gaia catalogue), gravitational wave detection, nuclear physics, orbital mechanics, reaction-diffusion morphogenesis, and flow field dynamics.
EXHIBITED & FEATURED
Work exhibited at the Design Museum, Science Museum (London), and National Gallery of Singapore.
Featured in The Guardian, The Times, Elle Decoration, It's Nice That, The Telegraph, and The Independent.