Interviews with Zhenqi Ji

I've been working with the company for on-going products' packaging design, therefore it will be a long-term collaboration.

Approximately 3 weeks.

Yes, Occasional Motto is being used already by the company.

I know the founder of the company very well personally, and we've worked on multiple projects before. So, when he mentioned that he was about to founding a stationery studio and asked me to design a brand identity for him, I accept the offer with no hesitation.

Nod Young from the A Black Cover Design

College students and people who works in art-related professions.

The unity of the design throughout the arrangement of the texts and illustration, and the refarain use of decorative design languages, Occasional Motto's brand identity shows a distinct and unique appearance among similar products.

Occasional Motto is the company's name.

Adobe Illustrator and photoshop.

The unity of the design throughout the arrangement of the texts and illustration, and the refrain use of decorative design languages, Occasional Motto's brand identity shows a distinct and unique appearance among similar products.

No I worked on the design on my own.

Yes and no. I did research a lot before starting the project, mostly on other stationery products, which is a vital part of the brand design process, the competing-products research. But I will not say my design is influenced by the data or the research, the research is just a supplementary tool, but not necessarily a decisive approach.

The design process of the Occasional Motto was very smooth. Because I know the funder of the company personally very well and had worked for him on multiple design projects before so I kind of know his personal tastes and fondness.

I just want to see how experienced professionals view my works as designer.

Communicating with my clients and see what they like and what they don't of the work.

Design to me is to find a balance between structure and forms with both aesthetic approach and universal method.

Brand identity and event-based visual identity.

EDITOR Brand Identity designed by A Black Cover Design. The studio decided to find a design language that “almost no one has done before” for EDITOR which is prospective, easy-to-operate and expandable. Design is conceived with the literal meaning of EDITOR as a starting point using an editor’s thinking pattern: an image is defined as a content space to be filled with information. This is an operation mode that copes with changes by sticking to a fundamental principle.

After work-out.

The over-all unity of the designed project.

Excited and pressure.

Releasing and very proud of, not myself, by my works.

Being acknowledged by not only the clients, but also the targeting customers.

Does it convey the information and contexts of the design efficiently.

Encourage the public to learn that good design is not only supplementary, but necessary to the society and plays a vital role in their daily life.

Communication is really important, especially when you try to covey the design idea to them. Sometimes, one design moves you a lot because you are the designer and you are capable of seeing through the design itself and get the idea of it. However, this doesn’t apply to everyone, as a designer, we have to explain where our design idea comes from, and why does it matter thoroughly to our clients so that they can feel what we felt during the design process.

Personally I am still a young designer, so I don't think I am experienced enough to share any suggestions.

Nothing special, brand research-brain storming-draft on notebook-put them together on software.

My MacBook Pro, my iPad-pro, my MUJI notebook, my pentel graphgear 1000 auto-pencil, and my uni pom drawing pens.

have a full-time job during the day, 9-6 every day. I will usually work on my personal project after 7 pm each night.

Personally I am still a young designer, so I don't think I am experienced enough to share "pearls of wisdom".

There are lots of positives, and the first and foremost to me is that being a designer helps me look things and objects in a more detailed approach. The negative of being a designer, hmm, I think is you really need to spend a lot of time sitting in front of your computer and that really hurts your eyes.

Practice, not imagination.

Observation.

Mostly Adobe Photoshop and illustrator.

Usually I would set a certain time slot as my "design" time, 4 hours a day usually.

Usually takes me about a week to two weeks.

Do you make a lot of money of being a graphic designer :)

I really like the feeling when different parts of one design project eventually converge to a whole. This part always moves me a lot, it seems to me like a new life is born out of my hand.

I am planning to continue my academic life in the near future. So maybe I will apply for the graduate school.

I develop my designs myself.

Right now I am working with a new biotech company on their brand identity.

You can contact me via my email:

jzq5858@gmail.com