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Designer, visual strategist and educator Li Zeng was born and raised in China, though she presently teaches graphic design at the University of Central Arkansas in the US, promoting design as a powerful tool for social change. We spoke with her to find out more about her journey to date.
Where are you originally from, and where and what did you study?
I am from Hunan Province, China. I lived in the countryside with my grandparents until I was 9 years old, and then transferred to a middle-sized city, Zhuzhou, where my parents worked. I took art classes and learned how to draw since the age of 10. Upon being admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), I selected visual communication (a better way to define graphic design) as my major.
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How did you initially develop an interest in design?
Actually, I started through drawing and art practice in general. Through years of training in middle school and high school, I was capable of drawing and sketching in a variety of mediums. This is what the entrance exams of most art colleges in China request from applicants. Even for the first year of college, we focused on general foundation skills. It wasn’t until the second year that I selected graphic design as my focus. So, since I had a genuine interest in art from a young age, moving to design was not a big shift.
Why did you decide to pursue further study in the US?
Interestingly enough, I developed my interest in English since middle school, as well. Sometimes, I see my interests in language overweighing my art — I had even thought about going to a professional language university to study a foreign language at one point. I am glad that I didn’t though, since I learned that language is just another tool for communication. Being able to speak and communicate with foreign friends helped me to develop my knowledge in Western culture, and so I decided to pursue a master’s degree in the US after I graduated from CAFA.
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How do you feel that this has challenged your work?
I don’t see interactions with another culture as a challenge; it can be better described as “exciting inspiration”. The change in environment and culture gives me so many fresh ideas and interesting things to think about. The first project that I did in graduate school, for example, was based on the cultural differences that I found between China and the US. This research interest continues even until now.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am working on an app design called Mount Merchant. It’s an outsourcing app that allows people to recommend products to others. I am collaborating with a designer from Minneapolis and several developers from China on this project. After 9 years of design experience, I have decided to focus on branding and user experience for my future career.
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Which of your projects are you most proud of so far?
I guess I can talk about two projects here. The first relates to discovering Chinese landscapes on people’s palms. I did that just for fun when I was in college; however, I found it spread pretty quickly on the Internet after I had my first interview with a design magazine. I guess people in China find it interesting to combine a traditional concept with more usual things like our palms.
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Another project is my graduation thesis work. It’s a self study on the uncertainty of design. It’s a little conceptual and a little hard to understand for regular audiences. I have been interested in a variety of incertitude relationships that coexist in the design process: rational and emotional, complicity and simplicity, certainty and ambiguity etc. I found it meaningful to look at problems within this co-relationship context. Through the interaction of two extremes, the results reach the level of balance and harmony.
Where do you hope to be in the future?
I am very interested in design as a strategy in business. I would like to be a more professional consultant as I grow instead of only making beautiful designs. I am devoted to deciphering how design connects different sections in business, industries and society. I want to see the inner structure of design thinking and how that influences different industries. I always seek for a purpose behind an idea and look at how design can contribute to shaping a better world.
Image may be NSFW.
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