Exhibition, Art Direction, Print, Animation

Venue: Anderson Gallery
Technique: Digital print | Animation | Installation |
Wheat-pasting | Resin Casting
Material: Assorted Paper | Foam | Resin | Two-way Mirror
Software: InDesign | Photoshop | After Effects
Dimension: 240 x 168 in.

Client: Self-initiated
Design and Art Direction: Yixue Li
Craftsmanship: Jason Pascoe
Photography: Terry Brown Studio

How does the vernacular visual language speak about disparities in China and across the globe? How does the typographic landscape around factories bring awareness to the cultural and socioeconomic gap between production and consumption?

On Being A Factory Worker is my MFA thesis exhibition that hopes to bring forward the disordered but lively visual landscape surrounding Chinese factory workers. It is designed to be "anti-designed" through a vibrant clashing color palette, and a joyful, messy, overloaded usage of typography. It also hopes to touch upon difficult questions about labor wages, rights of female workers, as well as identity transference.

2020, TDC 66 Communication Design Winner
2020, Communication Arts Design Annual 61

Print, Identity

Technique: Digital print | Digital | AI Image Generation
Software: InDesign | Photoshop

Client: The Webby Awards
Design and Art Direction: Yixue Li

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, and I was tasked to design the 26th Call for Entries Mailer for the award. In response to the post-COVID world, I wanted to design a warm invitation that was bold, positive, and new while honoring Webby's leading role in advancing digital innovation.

How does a mailer speak about the digital while standing out as a print piece? Besides a layout design that symbolizes our digital windows, tabs, and folders, I generated graphics with a text-to-image Artificial Intelligence network, using keywords such as “a bright new future.” The mailer was printed with elegant matte finish paper while maintaining vibrant colors.

Print, Identity, Typography

Technique: Offset print | Digital
Software: InDesign | Illustrator

Client: Independent Curators International
Art Direction: Wkshps
Design, Animation: Yixue Li
Print Production: GHP Media

I freelanced with Wkshps to create an invitation card and design system for the 2021 Benefit in a Box fundraising event, hosted by Independent Curators International.

Independent Curators International (ICI) is a unique arts organization that focuses on the role of the curator in contemporary art. In order to visualize the nonprofit client’s goal of "building stronger art communities, one box at a time," I designed a sophisticated yet simple card structure that resembles box stacks. These cards were printed with carefully selected Pantone colors, and were full of architectural playfulness at all angles. The invitation successfully served to promote the event that brings together the art communities.

Wesite, Prototyping, UI/UX, Type Design, Animation

Technique: Digital Prototyping
Software: Figma, ProtoPie, Illustrator, After Effects, Photoshop

Clients: ENVE & Thousand Percent Studio
Design Direction and Prototype: Ivy Yixue Li
Photography Direction: Thousand Percent Studio

Application website designed to promote the culture of All Terrain Bicycle, and invite cyclers to compete in a Reality TV Game Show. The website is a digital counterpart of the ultimate experience of bike building and bike riding, with design features that are both fun to interact with and informational for candidates.

Motion Graphic, Video, Typography

Technique: Animation
Software: After Effects

Clients: Siddhartha Arts Foundation / Para Site
Art Direction: Chris Wu (Wkshps)
Animation: Yixue Li

Motion graphic work designed for Kathmandu Triennale 2077, Nepal’s premier international platform for global contemporary arts.

Using kaleidoscope as the visual motif, this work reflects the discourses of “decolonization, migration and displacement” discussed by the Triennale.