Press Release
Ji Duan Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for The Wind Knows We Meet Illustration in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
Ji Duan recognized for graphics, illustration and visual communication design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 16, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ The Wind Knows We Meet Illustration by Ji Duan has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
About The Wind Knows We Meet Illustration
The Wind Knows We Meet is an illustration series about encounters and companionship in contemporary urban life. Wind is used as a metaphor for meaningful encounters. The series applies dramatic perspective, reddish brown warm tones, and warm light and shadow to create an open and inclusive atmosphere. Wide city landscapes and lively groups of characters are drawn with digital painting software. The illustration series responds to social distance in the digital era and invites viewers to build emotional connections in real life.
About Ji Duan
Ji Duan is a Beijing-based designer with a deep passion for painting. Currently working as a brand illustrator and senior visual designer in the internet industry, he brings a strong artistic sensibility to his professional practice. In 2020, Ji Duan won the championship in the ByteDance Creative Logo Extension Competition, demonstrating outstanding creative thinking and visual expression. In 2025, he was awarded the Gold Medal in the MUSE Creative Design Competition, further solidifying his reputation in the field of creative design. Combining painting skills with design expertise, Ji Duan continues to explore the intersection of art and commercial application.
Award Record
With this recognition, Ji Duan is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award
The A' Graphic Design Award is an international graphic design competition recognizing good graphic designs by best creative agencies and designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to graphic designers, communication designers, graphic artists and illustrators from all countries. Typical entries include logos, posters, infographics, brochures, packaging designs and business cards. The awarded graphic designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/graphics
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/177222
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/177222
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!177222
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/374521
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- The Wind Knows We Meet Illustration
- Function
- Illustration
- Category
- Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Branding & Advertising and Arts
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Black, Dim Gray, Saddle Brown and Sienna
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Ji Duan
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #177222
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The illustration series interprets encounters through expansive city landscapes and animated ensembles of characters. Using dramatic perspective, reddish brown warm tones, and warm light and shadow, the series creates an open and immersive atmosphere that vividly conveys the core idea that through encounters we grow, encouraging viewers to build emotional connections in the real world.
- Inspiration
- The Wind Knows We Meet draws inspiration from the interpersonal challenges arising in the digital era where people are becoming more connected online yet more distant in real life. The designer, having experienced the loneliness and longing for companionship in fastpaced cities, chose to tell stories through illustration. By capturing fleeting yet precious moments often lost in digital life, the illustration guides viewers back to emotional connections in the real world.
- Research
- The illustration series is grounded in a fundamental insight. As social beings, humans have an intrinsic need for genuine encounters and warm companionship. Yet, the fast pace of modern urban life and overreliance on digital interactions exacerbate social isolation and emotional disconnection, which runs counter to human nature. The series seeks to bridge gaps among people through artistic illustration, fostering a deep sense of human connection in society.
- Challenge
- The design challenge was to transform the philosophical idea of human connections with the world and with one another and the emotional experience of warm encounters into a concrete visual language. The designer maps out relationships through composition, conveys emotion through color, and embeds meaning in symbolic elements to illustrate people’s complex emotions in cities, achieving a harmony between artistic expression and emotional resonance.
- Realization and Technology
- During creation, Procreate was used for concept development and preliminary drawing, ensuring expressive and accurate forms. SAI, with its smooth brushstrokes, was used for large area coloring, producing clean and vibrant tones. Photoshop was used to shape light and shadow, refine details, and enhance the overall atmosphere, unifying and elevating the visual impact of the series.
- Operation and Interaction
- The series employs dramatic perspective to emphasize spatial depth and the grandeur of urban architecture, creating an open, inclusive atmosphere that enhances immersion. Reddish brown tones, set against the glow of warm sunlight, enhance the human touch and familiarity of the scenes. Wind runs as a guiding thread, weaving the series together. A wellbalanced, layered layout guides users to reflect on urban life and interpersonal relationships.
- Project Duration and Location
- Designed and developed in Beijing in December 2024, the project was launched in China in December 2025.
- Specifications
- The use of professional software like Photoshop and Procreate, along with the pressure-sensitive graphics tablet, ensures smooth lines and clear color grading. Strict adherence to the ISO 12646 color calibration standard guarantees that the visual details and colors remain consistent across different media, such as digital screens and printed materials, without any distortion or color shifts.
- Keywords
- Urban Life, Interpersonal Distance, Emotional Connection, Encounters and Companionship, Wind, Dramatic Perspective, Warm Light and Shadow, Visual Storytelling
