Thesis: Neon Dawn
This project talks about the artificial and the afterlife through the lens of Chinese traditional funeral rituals.
A Chinese traditional funeral is a big event. It’s complicated and ceremonious. It also becomes a standard whether you show your piety to dead.
During the funeral, people will burn fake money, because people believe that the afterlife is similar to the world we are living in now. Through burning, you can send money and other material wealth to the deceased. The event is so elaborate, people will even invite professional criers to the funeral to facilitate proper mourning.
Why is it necessary to hold on to material wealth for the afterlife? My thesis investigates this idea. I wanted to articulate this to a western audience by establishing an online retail store exaggerating these practices.
Save Music In Chinatown Identity
Save Music In Chinatown is a non profit organization which helps fundraise money for the music program at the Castelar Street Elementary School in Chinatown, Los Angeles.
The Hong Kong Cafe in Chinatown was a focal point for LA’s Punk Rock music scene and Save Music in China- town’s founders Martin Wong and Wendy Lau are big fans. They coordinate punk shows to raise money for the organization. They want to leverage this time period in music to inspire and engage children to appreciate and love music.
I created a visual identity system for them to help them market their efforts and attract more punk fans and music aficionados. Castelar Street Elementary school offers a Mandarin language immersion program for its students, this influenced the new identity which is based on the Chinese alphabet grid that students start learning how to draw Chinese characters with.
Second Nature Magazine Design
Second Nature is a magazine that explores various topics through the lens of what is perceived as fake, unnatural, plastic, artificial, and synthetic. Our perception of what is real changes over time informed by new processes, materials and belief systems. Second Nature frames our perception of what is real and what is fake.
Photography, Art Direction, and Identity Design.
Issue 1: Music
Issue 2: Food
Issue 3: Fashion
Issue 4: Love
KPCC Marketing Strategy
KPCC approached my graduate studio with an open ended brief seeking strategies to help them raise money and establish a stronger presence in todays audio based media landscape. In order to succeed as an entity while facing the proliferation of podcasts, KPCC needs to maintain their relevance as a content creator. How can we help KPCC define their point of view towards a wider national audience?
“Power to Public Radio.” This is KPCC’s current slogan. I wanted to work with this message as a starting point, and added to it “Power to Public Art.” By integrating public art with public radio we can begin to inscribe a visual language. The identity becomes a dynamic visual system influenced by local artists. In this example, I imagine the visual language as a system influenced by the artist Jen Stark. If Jen Stark were to collaborate with KPCC’s internal graphic design team, what would the marketing look like?
Hanna TV Show Title Graphic
Old Navy 2019 Holiday Campaign
Low On High Album Design
Waste Management Identity Design
Garbage is not pleasant to look at so I proposed a system of beautifully photographed plants and flowers to wrap all the garbage cans and trucks.
SKULLFUCK
This book is about the life experience of underground cult filmmaker Jon Moritsugu and the love story with his wife Amy Davis.
Coming soon in 2019 at kayapress.com
AoNi Fertilizer
Identity and package design for a Chinese fertilizer company specializing in recycled waste converted to nutrient rich soil. Two products are shown here, one is specific to potato planting and the other to peaches.
I EVEN REGRET NIGHT
I EVEN REGRET NIGHT is a historical and literary discovery. It was translated by Rajiv Mohabir. It was originally published in India in 1916.
Pre-order at kayapress.com
Type Specimen Logo Design
The context of this project was to design an identity system for a hypothetical conference on typography in Lyon, France. For this approach I wanted to play with a pluralistic sensibility of the letterform to celebrate typography.
Feast Art Exhibition & Book Design
Feast is a exhibition about 6 artists who use the human body as the focal point in their work, where flesh becomes a medium.
