ENPL

WorkNo. 01

How I gave an AI company the look of an anatomy atlas.

Asclepyus builds AI for hospitals and research, but its website looked like any start-up template. I led the redesign, which replaced the stock graphics with engravings. The new site has light and dark themes, runs in English and Italian, and has been live since August 2026.

  • Lead designer
  • Visual identity
  • Web
The Asclepyus home page after the redesign: an engraved Ionic column with the serpent of Asclepius coiled around it, beside the headline “Intelligence, in service of medicine”.
The Asclepyus home page after the redesign, light theme, 2026.
The Asclepyus home page after the redesign: an engraved Ionic column with the serpent of Asclepius coiled around it, beside the headline “Intelligence, in service of medicine”.
Pl. IThe Asclepyus home page after the redesign, light theme, 2026.

The brief

Asclepyus, based in Lecce, builds agentic systems and LLM applications for healthcare and research, alongside federated learning and robotics. It works with hospitals, universities and research institutions, whose people need to trust a system before they’ll try it.

The first website was assembled in 2024 from a generic template: a long navigation bar, a glassy banner with the company name, the headline “Transforming Healthcare with Secure AI” and three identical cards with stock icons. Any AI start-up could have used the same page.

Before and after

The same first screen of the home page, before and after the redesign.

The previous Asclepyus home page: a white navigation bar with a navy Get Started button, a glassy banner reading ASCLEPYUS, the headline Transforming Healthcare with Secure AI and three white cards with shield, brain and network icons.
The previous home page, 2024–2026.
The previous Asclepyus home page: a white navigation bar with a navy Get Started button, a glassy banner reading ASCLEPYUS, the headline Transforming Healthcare with Secure AI and three white cards with shield, brain and network icons.
Fig. 1 The previous home page, 2024–2026.
The redesigned Asclepyus home page: parchment background, a large serif headline and an engraved column with the serpent of Asclepius, crossed by thin blue-green circuit lines.
The same screen after the redesign, 2026.
The redesigned Asclepyus home page: parchment background, a large serif headline and an engraved column with the serpent of Asclepius, crossed by thin blue-green circuit lines.
Fig. 2 The same screen after the redesign, 2026.

Fig. 1 is a local build of the last version before the redesign. Two bands between the banner and the headline were filled by live data and are left out of the capture.

The idea

A company that builds AI for medicine asks hospitals and researchers to trust a new technology with their work. Medicine already has images that people trust: the engraved plates of anatomy atlases and the rod of Asclepius. I built the identity from them, so the new technology is presented in the look of old medical books. The project took the name Atlas.

Four decisions

Engraving, drawn by hand, instead of stock illustration

Most AI companies reach for 3D renders and gradients. Engraving takes longer to make, but it borrows the authority of the old atlases and doesn’t look like the usual AI start-up.

The plates were drawn by hand in Photoshop, then iterated on and refined with generative AI.

Close-up of the engraved Ionic capital with the serpent coiled around the shaft: cross-hatched volutes, fluting and individually drawn scales.
The capital and the serpent from the column master, ink on the light theme’s parchment.
Close-up of the engraved Ionic capital with the serpent coiled around the shaft: cross-hatched volutes, fluting and individually drawn scales.
Fig. 3, detailThe capital and the serpent from the column master, ink on the light theme’s parchment.

One drawing, two themes

Every engraving is ink only, with no painted paper behind it. A single master sits on parchment in the light theme and inverts cleanly onto the dark one.

It’s a stricter way to draw, but there’s no second set of artwork to keep in sync.

The redesigned home page in the dark theme: the same engraving rendered in light ink on a near-black background.
The same engraving in the dark theme.
The redesigned home page in the dark theme: the same engraving rendered in light ink on a near-black background.
Fig. 4The same engraving in the dark theme.

Museum captions and honest records

Images carry figure captions, as in a catalogue, and each project is a record that names its status and its limits.

For a company that handles medical data, saying clearly what a system doesn’t do yet builds more trust than a promise.

The projects list on the home page: numbered records such as PRIME-CARE and Mamma-AI, each with a short description, tags and a small engraving.
Projects presented as numbered records.
The projects list on the home page: numbered records such as PRIME-CARE and Mamma-AI, each with a short description, tags and a small engraving.
Fig. 5Projects presented as numbered records.

One cool colour in a warm palette

Ink and parchment are warm and stand for the history. The one cool colour, an aquamarine, stands for the AI: the circuit lines leaving the column and the changing last word of the headline.

Keeping the cool colour to that one role makes the idea readable at a glance.

The home page headline “Intelligence, in service of medicine”, with the last word set in aquamarine.
The changing last word of the headline, the only cool colour on the page.
The home page headline “Intelligence, in service of medicine”, with the last word set in aquamarine.
Fig. 6, detailThe changing last word of the headline, the only cool colour on the page.
The Atlas palette in the light theme, from the site’s own tokens
  1. Parchment#EBE1CD
  2. Mat#F2EAD7
  3. Ink#241C10
  4. Soft ink#57492F
  5. Gold#9A7B2F
  6. Current#22585B

On a phone

On small screens the engraving still leads, with the same captions and records.

The home page on a phone in the light theme.
Light theme, 390 px.
The home page on a phone in the light theme.
Fig. 7Light theme, 390 px.
The home page on a phone in the dark theme.
Dark theme, 390 px.
The home page on a phone in the dark theme.
Fig. 8Dark theme, 390 px.

What changed

Three identical cards became three engraved figures, each with its own caption. Now the pictures show what the company does before the text explains it.

The three cards from the previous site: Privacy-First Design, Advanced AI Models and Federated Learning, each with a navy icon tile.
Before: three cards with stock icons.
The three cards from the previous site: Privacy-First Design, Advanced AI Models and Federated Learning, each with a navy icon tile.
Fig. 9Before: three cards with stock icons.
The same content after the redesign, as three engraved figures with numbered captions.
After: the disciplines as engraved figures.
The same content after the redesign, as three engraved figures with numbered captions.
Fig. 10After: the disciplines as engraved figures.

Credits

Lead design: Gabriela Serafin. Engineering: the Asclepyus engineering team. Engravings drawn by hand in Photoshop, then refined with generative AI. The design went through 44 rounds of iteration before it launched on 22 August 2026.