CENTRUM × HELNIUM
Dubai, UAE · Private Event · 2025
FROM FORMULA TO SPECTRUM
Created for a private Centrum event in Dubai, this project began with one of the brand’s multivitamin formulations. Rather than creating an image simply inspired by Centrum, Helnium used the composition of the product itself as the starting material. The objective was to translate its complex mixture of vitamins and minerals into a microscopic artwork inspired by one of Centrum’s most recognizable visual elements: its spectrum of colors.
FORMULATION · SAMPLE PREPARATION · CRYSTALLIZATION · POLARIZED LIGHT MICROSCOPY · SCIENTIFIC ART
01 - STARTING FROM THE FORMULA
A multivitamin tablet is a complex chemical system. Alongside vitamins, it contains minerals and other components with very different solubilities, concentrations and chemical behaviours. This meant that the commercial product could not simply be dissolved, dried and placed under the microscope. The formulation was first studied to identify which components could contribute to the formation of microscopic structures and which would remain insoluble or interfere with crystallization.
The original product became the chemical starting point rather than the final sample.
FORMULATION → SEPARATION → PURIFICATION → RECONSTRUCTION
02 - BUILDING A CRYSTALLIZABLE SYSTEM
Six preparations were tested at different compositions and concentrations. The first samples showed strong oxidation, visible through their brown coloration. The formulation was then progressively adjusted to improve stability and crystal formation. Each slide represents another step toward finding the conditions capable of producing both structured crystals and a strong optical response.
OXIDATION · CONCENTRATION · SOLUBILITY · CRYSTALLIZATION
03-POLARIZED LIGHT MICROSCOPY
The selected crystals were imaged in high resolution using polarized light microscopy (PLM). The colors visible in the final image are not pigments added to the sample. They are produced by the interaction between polarized light and the anisotropic crystalline structure. As polarized light enters a birefringent crystal, it is resolved into two components travelling through the material with different refractive indices. Because these components propagate at different velocities, they accumulate a phase difference. When they recombine through the analyzer, interference selectively enhances or suppresses different wavelengths of visible light.
04-THE FINAL ARTWORK
Among the microscopic images, I selected a composition whose natural progression from green through yellow, orange and red immediately echoed Centrum’s color spectrum. The final artwork therefore connects the two through the same element: light. Centrum’s visual identity uses the colors of the visible spectrum. In the microscopic image, those colors emerge physically from the interaction of polarized light with the crystalline material derived from their formulation.
FORMULATION · CRYSTALLIZATION · BIREFRINGENCE · POLARIZED LIGHT MICROSCOPY · HD IMAGING
