Inspiration for Meet the Terpenes came from the rhetological fallacies graphic over at Information is Beautiful, while motivation came from a 45°C heat wave this week that prevented any sensible Australians from going outside. So I stayed at home and did this.

It took about three days to sketch, research and create.
Three days ago, I knew nothing about terpenes. My undergraduate phytochemistry class was really difficult. The teacher was a genius, and put huge amounts of effort into his tutorials, giving us thick booklets at each seminar filled with his hand-written notes and dozens of chemical structures. But for some reason, I just didn’t get it.
So this week, I decided to make the graphic I wish I’d had when I took the phytochemistry class many years ago. Having this poster on my wall would have answered all my questions and made the class much more enjoyable. I hope you find it useful, too.
As always, I welcome all feedback, corrections, suggestions and comments, etc.
Enjoy 🙂 James
Great stuff as always – especially like how you’ve given some idea as to the structures for each with the key.
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Thanks! It’s great to hear that from a fellow graphic designer/chemist! 🙂
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Hi James. What are the rights on these posters? Are you planning on selling them or are they free to download?
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Hi Tony,
You can download them for free if you plan to use them for educational purposes. (In which case, I’d appreciate you letting me know how you use it, because I’m a teacher, too!)
I’m also selling posters and prints, some of them signed, quite cheaply with international shipping. Click “Order Prints” near the top of my website to do that.
🙂 James
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I’d love to get a higher resolution image to print a single poster of this, can I pay you for that? It’s wonderful!!
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Hi Chelsea. I do sell high-res prints. They are in two sizes: 84 cm wide or 119 cm wide. They’re $15 and $25 each. Shipping costs vary by destination. Email me at jameskennedymonash@gmail.com with your delivery address for a more detailed quote or to make an order. James
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hey! this is great! thank you for putting an effort into it 🙂
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Great information and excellent resource.
Thank you very much for making this chart, I think it will help more people than you ever realized it might.
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Hi Love your posters I work as a science tech in a NZ High School and I am using some of your posters for a science publicity display within our school, I love the food ingredient posters; thanks heaps regards Liz Hilliar
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It is really amazing work! I love your poster, it is really useful information! Would you mind if I use it for my presentation (thesis defence)? Thank you so much for your great work!
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As a trainee flavourist, your posters are a huge help! Thank you for making them and how can i buy them?
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Thank you so much for this poster! It’s genius! I am currently doing a course in cosmetic formulation and really need this visual systematisation!
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I agree… this is my favourite poster!
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