Reuxn (Xin) Yao is a *(visual communicator, graphic designer, researcher) with experience in a variety of exciting projects to question the existing graphic design discipline through non-linear visual narratives________Passion for *(editorial design, printed matter, visual identity, experimental and conceptual visual arts)_________By exploring the new methodology that emerges due to technological advancements, his research currently focuses on the shifting interaction between the *(internet, publishing, and visual communication) in the age of digital reproduction___________.
*CONTINUUS SPACE (ON-GOING)
Continuus Space is an interconnection of concepts, existing between one work and the other. It acts as the fil rouge, the common thread, that enables and ties ideas, narratives and ways of thinking. Continuus Space is the celebration of a forever mutable web of relations. Every point is described by the intersection of a number of lines, forming connections amongst diverse practices.
Active since 2022, Continuus Space’s main intention is to bring together diverse practices and ideas, to create space for discourse, while offering an online display for emerging artists.
→ Entering Continuus Space means entering a new reality. It is a place for contradictions, ephemeral and permanent at once.
Year:
(2022)
Disciplines:
(visual identity)
(design direction)
*IN-BETWEEN AXEL ARIGATO
A selection of artworks I produced while working as a creative designer for the Axel Arigato brand team, pushing the brand's visual creative through a variety of design touchpoints, including both digital and print, social media, and in-store creative.
By keeping the brand's primary output, including its weekly web updates, newsletter, and social creatives, in alignment with its primary visual language, I also tried to explore what contemporary meant according to the brand's ideology by using social media platforms as a tool to understand customer needs, preferences, and desires. The goal is to create a language that brings people together, through the power of positivity, community and memorable experiences.
Year:
(2022)
Discipline:
(multidisciplinary design)
*RECORD. UNFOLD.
A collection of print and digital resources created for the emerging womenswear fashion label Sieriz. The brand's slogan, "Record. Unfold," served as inspiration for the visual language, which aims to emphasise the movement of being captured by the body and unfolded by the body. The material is "recorded" and "hidden" by the form itself, but it is discovered throughout the unfolding process.
With the word "Series" as the brand philosophy, where endless possibilities are embedded for organic combinations with everyday moments. Through the transformation of the phonetic alphabet to demonstrate the interpretation of the brand to give multiple senses, both visual and audible, the design components aim to visualise the pronunciation of "series" through its own manifestation.
Year:
(2022)
Disciplines:
(packaging design)
(web design / development)
*UNCREATIVE PORTRAIT_
WHAT_IF_I_AM_A_NOBODY.ZIP
‘Uncreative portrait’ is an accumulation that documents the designer’s single portrait in multiple visual languages produced by the impact of computers and cyberspace.
By examining the digital sublime as an alternative visual representation, it establishes a discourse around the aura of self-identity in the age of digital reproduction. These images continuously explore our digital self’s shifting authenticity and identity in the contemporary digital era. Is there a line between the self and its data shadow? Where is our physical memory going in this endless re-identification process?
The ‘pdf’ includes 300 interpretations of the designer’s own portrait, calling into question the ever-changing process of individuation as well as the ongoing process of redefinition in the context of the contemporary sublime.
Year:
(2022)
Disciplines:
(image making)
(book design)
(etching)
WHAT_IF_I_AM_A_NOBODY.ZIP
‘Uncreative portrait’ is an accumulation that documents the designer’s single portrait in multiple visual languages produced by the impact of computers and cyberspace.
By examining the digital sublime as an alternative visual representation, it establishes a discourse around the aura of self-identity in the age of digital reproduction. These images continuously explore our digital self’s shifting authenticity and identity in the contemporary digital era. Is there a line between the self and its data shadow? Where is our physical memory going in this endless re-identification process?
The ‘pdf’ includes 300 interpretations of the designer’s own portrait, calling into question the ever-changing process of individuation as well as the ongoing process of redefinition in the context of the contemporary sublime.
Year:
(2022)
Disciplines:
(image making)
(book design)
(etching)
*A LINE WHICH FORMS A VOLUME 5
A Line Which Forms a Volume 5 is a critical reader and symposium of graphic design-led research, which is written, edited, designed, and published by participants of the MA Graphic Design course at London College of Communication. The fifth issue explores acts of leaning and how they interconnect with concepts of care and transparency in the process of making design research public.
We see leaning as the of diverging forces seeking shared stability and collaboration. When leaning, we defy structural integrity and we let vulnerability arise. As our practice leans on, through, into and towards a subject (and vice versa), we show and exercise care for the complexities of contemporary society.
Year:
(2021)
Discipline:
(editorial design)
Roles:
lead designer (1/2)
production member (1/4)
*SHHH...LISTEN!
Nowadays, putting in earphones and listening to music is a way to avoid interaction with other human, especially with the noise-canceling function. This phenomenon is pulling away from Spotify's belief -"Listening is Everything."
The new feature aims for anti-blocking noise, exchange, and awareness. There are many engaging conversations that people can participate in to form a closer bond with each individual and society. This anchor point shapes our direction to tackle the challenge Spotify gives us. Everyone can influence one and another.
We want to re-identify the definition of listening and music in this brief as Spotify is a platform to share tunes that includes audio, songs, podcasts, and radio. Spotify also assists in discovering new trending tunes according to an individual's preference.
Year:
(2021)
Discipline:
(UI/UX design)
Collaborate:
(Cherry Wan)
Nowadays, putting in earphones and listening to music is a way to avoid interaction with other human, especially with the noise-canceling function. This phenomenon is pulling away from Spotify's belief -"Listening is Everything."
The new feature aims for anti-blocking noise, exchange, and awareness. There are many engaging conversations that people can participate in to form a closer bond with each individual and society. This anchor point shapes our direction to tackle the challenge Spotify gives us. Everyone can influence one and another.
We want to re-identify the definition of listening and music in this brief as Spotify is a platform to share tunes that includes audio, songs, podcasts, and radio. Spotify also assists in discovering new trending tunes according to an individual's preference.
Year:
(2021)
Discipline:
(UI/UX design)
Collaborate:
(Cherry Wan)
*NO SPACE, NO CHOICE, NO LOGO
Under the globalisation of the capitalist market, the design is regarded as a material consumption to satisfy human greed. Design such as advertising and branding is expanding gradually and also grabbed the centre stage of our daily life. As these designs come into view, they also exploit our minds, our spaces, and even our choices.
This project conceptualises a fictitious institution as a speculative experiment to generate dialogues and thoughts about the current status of art and design through a satirical approach, to question the capitalist disciplines and raise designers’ consciousness.
A virtual design union depicts a potential future of the design world as a reflection of capitalism’s hegemony. This institution would most likely be in charge of our community, as well as shaping societal ideals and the designers’ behaviour.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(web design)
(visual identity)
Under the globalisation of the capitalist market, the design is regarded as a material consumption to satisfy human greed. Design such as advertising and branding is expanding gradually and also grabbed the centre stage of our daily life. As these designs come into view, they also exploit our minds, our spaces, and even our choices.
This project conceptualises a fictitious institution as a speculative experiment to generate dialogues and thoughts about the current status of art and design through a satirical approach, to question the capitalist disciplines and raise designers’ consciousness.
A virtual design union depicts a potential future of the design world as a reflection of capitalism’s hegemony. This institution would most likely be in charge of our community, as well as shaping societal ideals and the designers’ behaviour.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(web design)
(visual identity)
*INTENTIONAL MISTAKES
We’ve all had our computers crash at that crucial moment. We’ve all spilt a cup of coffee over everything. And we’ve all come up against printers getting it ‘wrong’. No matter how hard we try to control the creative process, it is inevitable that we encounter an element of unpredictability- something unexpected.
The idea of ‘Accidents Gallery’ creates a system of making mistakes ‘on purpose’, as a way to encourage the unexpected. To find a balance between something already existed and something unexpected. In the end, the system of rules that can be used or created to invite accidents into a positive role, and the outcome produced by the system becomes something beyond oneself. As a result, to encourage the unpredictable.
The works within the ‘Accidents Gallery’ were inspired by the approach of the Dadaist poem, think of these invented systems as something which encourages a kind of ‘self-less’ creative process.video
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(risograph)
(experimental design)
(multidisciplinary design)
We’ve all had our computers crash at that crucial moment. We’ve all spilt a cup of coffee over everything. And we’ve all come up against printers getting it ‘wrong’. No matter how hard we try to control the creative process, it is inevitable that we encounter an element of unpredictability- something unexpected.
The idea of ‘Accidents Gallery’ creates a system of making mistakes ‘on purpose’, as a way to encourage the unexpected. To find a balance between something already existed and something unexpected. In the end, the system of rules that can be used or created to invite accidents into a positive role, and the outcome produced by the system becomes something beyond oneself. As a result, to encourage the unpredictable.
The works within the ‘Accidents Gallery’ were inspired by the approach of the Dadaist poem, think of these invented systems as something which encourages a kind of ‘self-less’ creative process.
→
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(risograph)
(experimental design)
(multidisciplinary design)
*THE KAMA SUTRA (食色性也）
"The desire for food and sex is a part of human nature." - Confucius, 551- 479BC
The definitions of sex are critical and shifting. With the ancient openness to sex, the modern society’s sensitivity and taboos to sex, the understanding of the differences between western and eastern culture on sex, the concepts of sex are being overturned.
This video explores the social sensitivity of the sex topic, through a ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ process to communicate with the audience an alternative interpretation of sex. From the early idea about the Kama Sutra to explore the contemporary value and significance behind it.
Year:
(2019)
Disciplines:
(film)
"The desire for food and sex is a part of human nature." - Confucius, 551- 479BC
The definitions of sex are critical and shifting. With the ancient openness to sex, the modern society’s sensitivity and taboos to sex, the understanding of the differences between western and eastern culture on sex, the concepts of sex are being overturned.
This video explores the social sensitivity of the sex topic, through a ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ process to communicate with the audience an alternative interpretation of sex. From the early idea about the Kama Sutra to explore the contemporary value and significance behind it.
Year:
(2019)
Disciplines:
(film)
*abcA
"Something is only what it is in its relation to another, but by the negation of the negation this something incorporates the other into itself." -Hegel’s Dialectics, 19th Century
This project is based on the law of ‘the negation of the negation’ to rethink and reflect the contemporary design in today’s consumerist society. The aim is to make a real difference in the design industry, not necessarily through designing artefacts, but by challenging public perception and changing systems rather than merely boosting lifestyles. To engage a broad audience in a context that will challenge and provoke the public to rethink the role of design in contemporary culture.
The installation builds a platform for other designers to express their opinions about what does design mean to them. A dozen of posters as the bubble of capitalism market, designers are engaged to prick the bubbles and start to think about how would they re-define the meaning of design today.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(poster design)
(installation)
"Something is only what it is in its relation to another, but by the negation of the negation this something incorporates the other into itself." -Hegel’s Dialectics, 19th Century
This project is based on the law of ‘the negation of the negation’ to rethink and reflect the contemporary design in today’s consumerist society. The aim is to make a real difference in the design industry, not necessarily through designing artefacts, but by challenging public perception and changing systems rather than merely boosting lifestyles. To engage a broad audience in a context that will challenge and provoke the public to rethink the role of design in contemporary culture.
The installation builds a platform for other designers to express their opinions about what does design mean to them. A dozen of posters as the bubble of capitalism market, designers are engaged to prick the bubbles and start to think about how would they re-define the meaning of design today.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(poster design)
(installation)
*THE (CHAIR)
This research-led practice aims to demonstrate the numerous comprehension perspectives through the interpretation and representation of the objects. To rethink our position in the relationship between the material world by exploring our everyday object's deeper significance. As a response to the human-centred perspective, I was trying to reverse the relationship of human and object, to look for the subjective object, to explore the narrative behind them, and the interpretation from the objects themselves.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(documentary film)
(installation)
This research-led practice aims to demonstrate the numerous comprehension perspectives through the interpretation and representation of the objects. To rethink our position in the relationship between the material world by exploring our everyday object's deeper significance. As a response to the human-centred perspective, I was trying to reverse the relationship of human and object, to look for the subjective object, to explore the narrative behind them, and the interpretation from the objects themselves.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(documentary film)
(installation)
*EMPATHY DESIGN
(User):
9-year-old introverted home-school student
(Collection):
Pitt Rivers Museum
All design influences our behaviour, as a designer, we always need consciously consider the power this gives us to help people. This project encouraged me to explore the experience of a particular user and discuss the audience seriously.
To find the empathies with the audience's experience, I focused on researching users personalities and activities as my starting point. Try to understand the users' behavioural habit first and let them stay in their comfort zone to experience the collection. This experience design likes a bridge to connect the users and collections, to find the balance and common point between them.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(painting)
(crafting)
(installation)
(User):
9-year-old introverted home-school student
(Collection):
Pitt Rivers Museum
All design influences our behaviour, as a designer, we always need consciously consider the power this gives us to help people. This project encouraged me to explore the experience of a particular user and discuss the audience seriously.
To find the empathies with the audience's experience, I focused on researching users personalities and activities as my starting point. Try to understand the users' behavioural habit first and let them stay in their comfort zone to experience the collection. This experience design likes a bridge to connect the users and collections, to find the balance and common point between them.
Year:
(2020)
Disciplines:
(painting)
(crafting)
(installation)
*A REVOLUTION LOOP
Through the expression of vintage clothing and music, a fabric book explores the era-defining significance and impact of the revolution in London in the late 1960s. Looking back, the 1960s may also be used to pinpoint the origins of many of the major issues of today, such as neo-liberalism, anti-consumerism, and personal identity. Was that a revolution just in that period? Or, have we always been in the midst of it? 1960s ? 2010s !
Year:
(2018)
Disciplines:
(photography)
(book design)
Through the expression of vintage clothing and music, a fabric book explores the era-defining significance and impact of the revolution in London in the late 1960s. Looking back, the 1960s may also be used to pinpoint the origins of many of the major issues of today, such as neo-liberalism, anti-consumerism, and personal identity. Was that a revolution just in that period? Or, have we always been in the midst of it? 1960s ? 2010s !
Year:
(2018)
Disciplines:
(photography)
(book design)
*A PERSON AS AN ARCHIVE
A time capsule containing objects is intended to portray modern life to people 100 years in the future. Today, we are all part of a community. Despite being separate individuals, everyone is related. An era could be embodied by one person. To put it another way, nothing really worth archiving but only "me," a connected but individual person in a diverse and rapidly changing world.
This package contains the items I use on a daily basis. It includes the key to my apartment, an oyster card, chewing gum, 3 pounds 50 pence for a cup ofcoffee, a Wasabi napkin, around 20 cigarettes, and some pictures that offer as a snapshot of my daily life.
Year:
(2019)
Disciplines:
(object archive)
A time capsule containing objects is intended to portray modern life to people 100 years in the future. Today, we are all part of a community. Despite being separate individuals, everyone is related. An era could be embodied by one person. To put it another way, nothing really worth archiving but only "me," a connected but individual person in a diverse and rapidly changing world.
This package contains the items I use on a daily basis. It includes the key to my apartment, an oyster card, chewing gum, 3 pounds 50 pence for a cup ofcoffee, a Wasabi napkin, around 20 cigarettes, and some pictures that offer as a snapshot of my daily life.
Year:
(2019)
Disciplines:
(object archive)