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Oliver Uberti

@oliveruberti

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Maps, illustration, motionGFX & more 📚The Hidden Nations of Animals; Atlas of Finance; Atlas of the Invisible 🥁@floordays 🎨 formerly @natgeo

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My latest cover for @sciencemagazine 👀

While I had the lungs-as-map idea from the start, my first draft resembled a blurry x-ray. The second, a pair of radioactive chicken cutlets. In distress, I consulted a book I’ve had since I was a kid: “The Human Body” (Random House, 1982) by the late Bertel and Ruth Dowling Bruun. I know there are more precise anatomy guides, but for my money, Patricia J. Wynne’s clear and colorful illustrations are hard to beat. They were where my family turned in 1995 to understand why my father’s heart had stopped working. This time around, they helped me understand what’s so wondrous about the lungs: the arboreal branching of our airways. So I pivoted to my drafting table, sharpened a pencil, and began thinking more decoratively, designing a pattern of tendrils and double helices more evocative of William Morris than Gray’s Anatomy.

With all the imagery available in today’s AI-saturated world, it’s tempting to choose precision over accuracy. To believe more is more. Wynne reminded me that stripping away the clutter can be a breath of fresh air.

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According to a new study, an inherited genetic mutation may increase lung cancer risk among people who have never smoked. By tracing the ancestry of people carrying this rare variant, researchers at @23andMe and the @danafarber Cancer Institute uncovered a shared genetic legacy extending back hundreds of years and concentrated in the southeastern United States. by @oliveruberti

A few years ago, an intrepid writer invited me to illustrate him on a first-of-its-kind global journey into the Hidden Nations of Animals. From his cabin in California to a de facto avian refuge in the Korean DMZ, the adventure has been nothing short of revelatory. Congratulations, Ryan Huling! The book is unlike any I’ve ever seen or read before. IN BOOKSTORES TODAY! 🥳

🦫🦇🐜🦌🐦🐋 by @oliveruberti

Two years ago, I sketched construction of the world’s largest wildlife crossing for my latest collaboration, “The Hidden Nations of Animals” by Ryan Huling. Yesterday, Ryan and I got to stand atop this enormous vegetated bridge and give a framed print of my illustration to the woman who championed the cause: Beth Pratt (@nwf).

When construction ends later this year, the Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will grant safe passage across the 101 for mountain lions, coyotes, and countless other species. When I wrote about these trapped populations in 2016 for my book #wheretheanimalsgo, funding a crossing of this scale seemed improbable. Now it’s a blueprint for the future. Pratt says more crossings are already in the works. Happy Earth Day! 🌎

#EarthDay #WildlifeCrossing #P22 #Conservation #MountainLion #TheHiddenNationsOfAnimals #SaveLAcougars

Thanks for the pics, @martimvian by @oliveruberti

🤩 The Hidden Nations of Animals is getting high praise, but we would love to hear what YOU think. In this age of algorithmic hegemony, every review helps. If you are enjoying our book and my illustrations, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads—or both! 🙏 by @oliveruberti

To draw Argentine ants for The Hidden Nations of Animals, I didn’t have to travel to Argentina. Those tiny conquistadors have invaded Southern California—and @ucsandiego ecologist David Holway knows where to find them.

One spring day in 2024, he invited author Ryan Huling and I on an ant safari. I brought along some sheets of paper to film their skitterings on a clean background because I had this idea to draw the ants crawling across the cover of our book. (See video.)

Our US publisher (@avery_books) didn’t think Americans would buy a book with “bugs” on it. Fortunately the French (@edition_marabout) felt differently—et je l’adore! 😍 Bonne parution! 🇫🇷 by @oliveruberti

Grateful for an epic weekend in New York. We didn’t win but man is it fun to be a nominee! #emmys by @oliveruberti

It took months to draw this swirling cyclone of bats. “Why do I make life so hard on myself?” I often wondered while considering the pose of each bat’s wings. Seeing the final image on @time’s homepage and reposted by @peta makes all that crazy feel worth it. 🦇

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Excerpted from “The Hidden Nations of Animals” by Ryan Huling. Coming June 2, 2026. 📚 Available for pre-order from @Avery_Books by @oliveruberti

I’m excited to unveil the original poster art for SUPERCONSCIOUS designed by @oliveruberti whom we were so lucky to get to work with on this project. Apart from the poster design he also designed our main title and credits, evoking the film’s 1970s vibe. These are signed limited edition silkscreen prints from @vgkids - DM if you’re interested in having one of your own!

Oliver is a former senior design editor for @natgeo and currently a freelance title designer and motion GFX artist for film and television. He also writes and illustrates books. His latest, Hidden Nations of Animals, will be published by Penguin Random House in June 2026.

Check out his other work at www.oliveruberti.com by @oliveruberti

My latest cover for @nature_the_journal

Dogs have been companions for humans for millennia, but the exact origins and nature of early dogs remain a mystery. New research reveals that they diversified and spread across Eurasia far earlier than had previously been thought.

Though the first dogs were still rather lupine, I took artistic license to hide a portrait of my floppy-eared spaniel in the painting. Can you spot her? 🐶 by @oliveruberti

COVER REVEAL: If you like animals and visiting new places, you’re gonna love my latest collaboration. In The Hidden Nations of Animals, author Ryan Huling takes you from Canada’s boreal forests to the Korean DMZ to meet the residents of regions long considered “uninhabited.”

When designing its jacket, I kept returning to one idea: what might a flag for an animal nation look like? Instead of rectangular stripes, I pictured ragged swashes of color like the one Rafiki wipes across Simba’s forehead in “The Lion King.”

Inside, I took a page out of history and illustrated this epic travelogue as if it were an explorer’s notebook. My graphite and watercolor sketches follow Ryan’s journey through the seasons, from the green edge of beaver ponds to icy blue mornings on the Kazakh steppe. This is hand-drawn journalism, folks—something I’ve been working toward for decades. So excited to share this side of my work with you!

Coming in June from @averybooks. Available now for preorder. 🦫🦇🐜🦔🦌🐦‍⬛🐋 by @oliveruberti

NEW WORK: Not just a print designer, y’all. I designed the titles, motion GFX, and maps for a gripping new true crime series on @mgmplus. “The Hillside Strangler” investigates a series of murders that terrorized Los Angeles and led to the longest criminal trial in US history. Three episodes are out already and the fourth drops THIS SUNDAY, Feb. 8. 🍿🍿

Director Peter LoGreco wanted to immerse you in the vibe of LA in the 1970s, so I chose fonts and colors that evoke the era as vividly as any costume or needle drop.

To maintain a period aesthetic during the GFX sequences, I animated newspapers to look as if you’re viewing them on a microfiche reader. Orthogonal pans and occasional rack focuses helped sell the illusion that you are investigating alongside the detectives. Similarly, I made my maps intentionally lo-fi with the glow, jitter, and interlacing of an analog broadcast.

And check out that full-screen end credit! 👀

Best part? I got to work with the unparalleled @sophiakruz for the first time. Once again, she masterfully wove a story that hooks you and never lets go. 🙌😍 by @oliveruberti

In my 2021 book, Atlas of the Invisible, I charted the movements of the famous ‘Doomsday Clock.’ The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer we are to causing our own extinction. Today, its timekeepers moved the hands closer to catastrophe than ever before.

Despite the current risk, reviewing the minute hand’s movements over time does offer hope. Treaties and disarmament have shifted the hand backward eight times since 1947. As Russia and the US purged their stockpiles after the Cold War, there was such relief in surviving half a century without another nuclear attack that in 1991 the @bulletinoftheatomicscientists moved the minute hand all the way to 11:43.

In other words, leadership matters. Tell your senators to vote NO on ICE funding. by @oliveruberti