Originally from Taiwan, Jia-yi Liu is a talented illustrator and designer currently based in London. She studied illustration at Falmouth University, working as an editorial illustrator for several years before winning a scholarship to study at Shillington College in 2020, adding graphic design to her impressive creative skills set.
Often inspired by Art Deco and Memphis design, Jia-yi’s illustration style is a beautiful combination of geometry and expressive colour palettes. She has worked for a range of clients, including Elite Traveller Magazine, BBC International, the Telegraph and Forbes Japan, with her pieces often exploring topics such as adventure, travel, and the great outdoors. Jia-yi’s design work is just as impressive as her illustration, with a portfolio packed full of vibrant, elegantly crafted projects.
A standout project for Jia-yi is ‘Let’s Get Names Right’ – a campaign focused on tackling the issue of mispronounced names in schools and workplaces – the project aims to highlight the important link between someone’s name and their identity. She makes clever use of humour to help people understand what it’s like to have your name continuously mispronounced. The project has also been featured on Creative Boom. As Jia-yi tells us: “Getting someone’s name right is crucial to respecting their identity.” She also believes that “without diverse designers in the industry, people of colour and minority groups can be left of the narrative.” She sees adding design to her skills set, alongside illustration, as another way to communicate her ideas, use her voice and make change.
We’re really excited to see more of Jia-yi’s work in the future and recently caught up with her to find out more about her creative process and how she believes we can encourage greater diversity and inclusion within the creative industries.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your design course and career so far?
I wish I’d put myself out there earlier. I’m naturally quite a shy person and would go as far to say that I hate talking about myself and my values. But design thrives on community and from discussion; you never know what ideas and insights you might gain if you discuss and talk about your work. I wish I could tell the past me to feel confident to open up a bit sooner and that no matter how inexperienced you feel your viewpoint still matters!
“…design thrives on community and from discussion; you never know what ideas and insights you might gain if you discuss and talk about your work.”
Could you tell us about a standout project that you’ve worked on and why it’s important to you?
It was actually the project I dreaded the most during my Shillington course – the brief was to create a campaign about a cause that you feel passionate about. I ended up creating a campaign called ‘Let’s Get Names Right’, which tackles the issue of mispronouncing names in schools and workplaces. It has happened to me all my life, with a name like Jia-yi (Jia like “Chai Latte” with a J and Yi as in “Ee”).
At first, I was hesitant to go ahead with a project around this issue because it felt too personal and almost controversial. However, doing online research, further reading on the subject and conducting interviews with my friends, cemented the thought that the mispronunciation of names can have a significant impact on feelings around identity and privilege. I realised that this is exactly what I believe to be the aim of design; to highlight a cause people find uncomfortable by telling a story that people can resonate with and hopefully change some mindsets along the way.
I had a lot of fun coming up with the visual direction, illustrating the grumpy faces, playing with the typography, and coming up with ideas like the name mispronunciation simulator. The concept is to help people, who don’t usually have a language barrier, see what it’s like to have their name misinterpreted. My hope is that by using humour this campaign, can address the problem without making anyone feel ‘cancelled’, and at the same time emphasise that getting someone’s name right is crucial to respecting their identity.
“At first, I was hesitant to go ahead with a project around this issue because it felt too personal and almost controversial. However, doing online research, further reading on the subject and conducting interviews with my friends, cemented the thought that the mispronunciation of names can have a significant impact on feelings around identity and privilege.”
How would you describe your design style and what do you find most challenging about being a designer and illustrator?
As an illustrator, maintaining the consistency of my style is key. Although, I do want to subtly evolve my style with the times and refine it. I would approach each brief with new colour palette ideas and try out new compositions in my work. It was hard at first to switch to a different way of thinking when it comes to design and to stop myself from jumping into creating the visuals straight away. With my design projects it’s more about what is the problem to be solved and how to tell the story and find that solution, so the style of a project is often the last thing to consider.
Can you tell us a bit about how you approach a creative project and what design processes you like to use?
The first steps are always include dissecting the brief. After reading the brief, I start by writing down everything and anything that my wanders through my mind and picking out key words. This is usually followed by me outlining and gaining an understanding of the problem I’m trying to solve. Through a combination of the two, I continue with my ugly mad sketches until four or five ideas seem decent enough to continue with.
Next stage is fleshing out my sketches with some research! Books, magazines, the internet, Ted Talks, and just talking to friends and colleagues are some of the best ways to do this. I then collate all my inspiration and findings onto a concept board, this is where I try and bring the story to life by including potential colour combinations and type options. From here on out, it’s just honing the direction by getting feedback from the client!
How do you think we can encourage greater diversity and inclusion across the creative industries?
Platforms like this! I think it’s really important to hear diverse voices speaking out about their experiences within the creative industry. It’s powerful to see and hear from people who look like you, making it professionally in a role that you aspire to.
I also think mentoring is important too, having guidance and learning from other people’s experiences makes the creative industry seem less exclusive and unachievable. I’ve found that networks like The Creative Occupation and places like the Minx Creative agency all have great mentoring sessions with incredible women who have helped me immensely.
“I think it’s really important to hear diverse voices speaking out about their experiences within the creative industry. It’s powerful to see and hear from people who look like you, making it professionally in a role that you aspire to.”
Name your top three she/her and/or they/them creative crushes currently working in the industry?
- Victo Ngai — her illustrations are out of this world; she has a great interview on YouTube which introduced me to the stunning work and compositions of Winsor McCay and ‘The Complete Little Nemo in Slumberland’.
- Susan Kare — her lecture on the Letterform Archive is one to watch, it’s just fascinating watching her explain the origins of Apple Icons.
- Jessica Hische — her SkillShare classes are so great if you’re interested in letterforms.
