Graphic Design | wonderland

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CHINESE TATTOO SHOP

Treated more as an aesthetic, instead of a language, Chinese characters have made an impact on visual cultures of the West. Westerners like to have Chinese tattoos without actually knowing the cultural context they carry, and sometimes even the actual meaning of the words.

To create an open dialogue on how the West is capitalizing on the “exotic charm” of the Chinese language, this pop-up store project presents a conceptual space that displays a series of tattoos that use original fonts and graphics that Niki designed. These tattoos play with the illegibility and exoticism of Chinese characters while selecting humorous phrases from popular culture and every day slang.

The audience is welcome to lounge around, purchase products with tattoo graphics, and apply the temporary tattoo stickers onto their body, while the artist Niki was playing the role of the shop assistant. The intention behind this interaction is to show how cultures can be reclaimed and repurposed by other cultural backgrounds and perspectives, sometimes creating a cultural disparity in which feeble attempts at understanding can promote misinterpretation and ignorance rather than transparency, respect, and clarity.

ARTIST BOOK

By showing cross-cultural misinterpretations and the intentionality of modified forms of English and Chinese, this artist book is about how cultural signifiers can be repurposed and reclaimed. The book focuses on how cultural disparity and people’s feeble attempts to understand different cultural heritages can promote ignorance, rather than transparency, respect and clarity.

This project won The First Prize of The Cathryn Griffith Award in the Graphic Arts Annual, 2018

CONNECTED BOSTON

PROJECT

Posters and gifs designed for Connected Boston -- a program of The Multicultural AIDS Coalition (MAC), Boston's No.1 health navigator for LGBTQ people.

POSTERS

GIFS

PUBLIC DISPLAY

SOCIAL MEDIA / PRINTED

ANIMATIONS

Animations created for Laguarda.Low Architects, a NYC-based architecture firm.

VIDEOS

Videos created for Laguarda.Low Architects, a NYC-based architecture firm.

GIFs

GIFs created for Kel & Partners, a Boston-based social media and public relations agency.

Clients: Cumberland Farms, So Clean, UberDoc, International Design Guild, Flooring America, Wasabi

POSTERS

Propaganda

This poster has been collected by Print Power, a propaganda distribution system organized by Damir Porobic of the University of Southern Maine and Brian Reeves of Boston College and Southern Maine Community College.
The poster has been exhibited at the W. Van Alan Clark Jr. Library at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and at the AREA Gallery at the University of Southern Maine's Portland campus at the Woodbury Campus Center.

Music Event Posters

Posters Designed for Asian American Writers Workshop

Established in 1991, AAWW is a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans.

LOGOS

This is my personal logo. "LYN" is the English abbreviation of my Chinese name while "立" in Chinese means "standing" and "independent". I fused "LYN" into the "立" character in order to express my determination to be an independent person. LYN also represent "liberal”, “young" and “natural."

This logo was designed for a beauty salon named Garden Bijou.
The abstract cursive writing of "Bijou" resembles a lady's face with red lips, which reflects the attributes of the beauty salon.

This logo was designed for The Ask & Tell Project, an online campaign aiming to build a community for LGBTQ military veterans and servicemembers through which they can share their stories and make connections.
The font used for this logo is ITC Machine Medium, which is the same font as the US Army logo. This font choice consists with the attributes of this project.
(check out the link below to learn more)

This logo was designed for Periodical, an online application designed by my teammates and I that maps the location of free and accessible menstrual products to promote the idea of hygienic products as necessities, rather than luxury goods.
Four tampons form a circle which symbolizes the period and circulation. The pink drop also represents menstruation. The overall image also looks like a breast, which implies the feminine paradigm of this group.
(check out the link below to learn more)

This logo was designed for Periodical, an online application designed by my teammates and I that maps the location of free and accessible menstrual products to promote the idea of hygienic products as necessities, rather than luxury goods.
This logo is a combination of a drop and a tampon together in the shape of an exclamation point. The exclamation point is meant to make the audience associate the logo and overall cause as important.
(check out the link below to learn more)

PUBLIC GRAPHIC ARTS PROJECTS

Only One Left Napkin Public Art

Location: Boston MBTA Restroom at Park Street
Audience: MBTA Commuters

During a two week period, all the napkins in the dispensers will be taken out and replaced by a customized napkin roll with only one napkin left. Users of the restroom will be irritated by the lack of napkin and the insulting messages on it. This piece points to the importance of reducing hand napkin waste.

Printed Napkin Public Art

Location: Tufts Dining Hall

Audience: Tufts students and faculty

Based on my observation of large amounts of napkins being wasted in the tufts dining hall, I hope that printing cautionary messages on napkins will bring awareness to the importance of reducing napkin related waste.

Ignorance Party

Treated more as an aesthetic, instead of a language, Chinese characters have made an impact on visual cultures of the West. Many fast fashion brands capitalize on the beauty of the Chinese symbols and slap them on garments simply because they "look cool". Westerners like to buy these products without actually knowing the cultural context they carry, and sometimes even the actual meaning of the words. Playing with this mentality, I designed these patches with ironic metaphors. People will be encouraged to apply these patches to their garments.

This art project creates an open dialogue on how cultural disparity and people’s feeble attempts to understand different cultural heritages can promote ignorance, rather than transparency, respect and clarity.

This project won The First Prize of The Cathryn Griffith Award in the Graphic Arts Annual, 2017

“我很行”－I can/I am super tough in bed.

“我不行”－I can't/I have erectile dysfunction.

"我妈妈不喜欢你“－My mama don't like you.

“宅男”－Otaku/Hermit

"我被甩了”－I got dumped

“麻辣香锅”－Spicy Hotpot

“精神食粮”－Spiritual Food

"我很穷”－I am poor

"杀人狂魔“－Serial Killer

“我破产了”－I am broke

Physical Patches and shirts