A brand story millions of years in the making. Here’s the story of why dinosaurs are stars of the Plasmidsaurus brand.
Customers notice a lot of things about Plasmidsaurus. The speed. The simplicity. The data quality. The quiet thrill of putting samples in your local dropbox and getting answers back the same day. But there is another thing nearly everyone notices first.
The dinosaurs.
They are hard to miss. They show up across the website, at conferences, in the ordering experience, and sometimes on the backs of sample sheets, drawn by customers between experiments. It may seem like an unusual choice for a biotech company, but what began as a playful instinct has grown into one of the most recognizable and beloved parts of Plasmidsaurus.
Scientists Like Dinosaurs. Obviously.
Eric Johnson, a co-founder of Plasmidsaurus, explains his logic behind the name: “Many scientists first fell in love with biology through dinosaurs. Long before we learned about PCR or sequencing, we were children paging through dinosaur picture books and encountering evolution, extinction, anatomy, and the wonder of the living world for the first time. The dinosaur theme is a way to connect with that first spark of scientific curiosity.” He also admits that he liked the name because it was a cheeky play on words, resembling “Plasmids-R-Us.”
In an industry where companies tend to signal credibility by sounding sleek, serious, and vaguely futuristic, building a biotech brand around dinosaurs was a gamble. But Eric believed it would resonate with the scientists Plasmidsaurus was built to serve.
He was right. Researchers around the world embraced it. Still, scientists were never going to trust their samples to a company based on a clever name alone. The dinosaurs may make Plasmidsaurus recognizable, but our reputation still rests on the quality of our sequencing.
How One Prompt Became a Tradition
The dino drawing tradition grew out of the same ethos that shaped the company from the start. When the founders created the first order template, they added an amusing prompt: “Optionally, on the back of the paper, draw a dinosaur. If our kids like it, you might win a prize.” Soon, customers started doing exactly that, sending in tiny PPE-clad pterodactyls, pipette-wielding sauropods, sequencing-themed raptors, and every prehistoric variation in between.
The drawings have evolved into a special connection with the scientific community. Each one is a reminder that behind every sample is a person, waiting on data that will move an experiment forward. The people handling the samples feel that connection firsthand. “It’s disappointing when there’s a day I don’t see any dino art come through the lab,” says Kendra Bush, a technician in our Seattle lab. They enjoy seeing every contribution, from quick sketches to elaborate illustrations: “Some are really intricate and impressive. It makes me wonder what part of their experiment they were waiting on while they created such masterpieces.”
The Designer Behind the Modern Dino
By September 2024, Plasmidsaurus had a name, a personality, and a growing library of dinosaur lore. What it needed was a visual identity that could bring all of that together in a more intentional way. That’s when we brought in Sonal Chakrasali to turn that personality into a stronger, more cohesive visual identity. “I couldn’t pass up the offer to really own and build a brand from scratch,” she says. “I really appreciated that the founders were down to build a brand for Plasmidsaurus that breaks the mold of what a typical biotech company looks like.”
One source of inspiration for Sonal was Ingrid Fetell Lee’s TED talk on the aesthetics of joy. Sonal was taken with the idea that joyful design can make spaces feel more vibrant, creative, and emotionally supportive, and she saw no reason that should only apply to physical spaces. She believes that digital spaces can feel the same way too.
“Part of the project was solving how this dinosaur theme fit into our brand without feeling forced. [...] Many of the early explorations were around dinos or no dinos,” she explained. “We never aspired to project a slick, corporate, and safe image, but we were also a little hesitant to go more playful.” But she says the enthusiastic response from customers early on gave the team confidence to lean further into the brand. Across the Plasmidsaurus website, Sonal’s dinos are busy doing the work of the company: collecting samples, delivering DNA, and running sequencing machines.
From the Jurassic to the Sequencing Era
What began as an unusual name has grown into an identity shaped by founders, designers, lab teams, and customers around the world. The dinosaurs aren't why researchers trust us with their samples. But they're a big part of why Plasmidsaurus feels different: proof that scientific rigor and a little joy can share a bench.
Next time you submit samples, don’t forget to draw us a dino.
Ella Watkins-Dulaney, PhD
Science Writer at Plasmidsaurus