Lera Shih's graphic design world

INSPIRATION:

Cho-Liang Lin really liked the line artwork that Te-Sian, Shih created for them in 2021, so this year they also hope that the designer can continue to create artwork using lines. This year's theme is up to Te-Sian's own interpretation, and she would continue to use her own created line visual to design the entire poster. The specific peace dove design has been seen by many people, but creating a peace dove using lines will make it more interesting for people to guess its meaning.

UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

This poster was designed for the musician Cho-Liang Lin and his Taipei Music Academy and Festival. Many people have suffered a lot during Covid-19, and many need to find inner peace and calm. Therefore, Te-Sian, Shih created an abstract peace dove as the main visual using lines. She used blue as the background color and lines to represent how music can heal the heart, allowing people to feel as if they are in a magnificent ocean when they listen to music.

RESEARCH ABSTRACT:

This poster was not only designed for the music festival, but also for those suffering from Covid-19. Te-Sian Shih was invited to participate in an exhibition organized by the Taiwanese American Arts Council, AAPIC, and doctors in New York City to help Asian communities and people who have suffered from racial discrimination find peace. The doctors said they have encountered many Asians who have suffered from misunderstanding and bullying. Being a vulnerable group, they dare not speak out, causing many mental illnesses. Therefore, Te-Sian Shih's design posters mainly focus on finding balance, as both the Asian American association and doctors believe that art therapy can be helpful to people. Some viewers have already expressed that Te-Sian Shih's posters can bring calmness, and the main visual of a peace dove with a white lily flower is very interesting.

CHALLENGE:

During Covid-19, New York City released many statistics on Asian bullying, and many people have lost family members, property, health, and other data. Taiwan has been relatively unaffected due to strict measures and has a peaceful society. She also learned how creators negotiate with property owners regarding ownership of their works, name representation rights, and other legal issues. The most challenging part is not creating the poster but clarifying intellectual property rights and authorization issues with contract owners. Te-Sian, Shih is fortunate to have many lawyers and organizations in Taiwan to help designers understand the rules and regulations of the industry. Therefore, communication with property owners can be more smooth.

This project won the Winner of the GD USA Package Design Awards 2020, Silver awards of IDA International Design Awards 2019, and DNA Paris Design Awards 2021, and was shown at Florence Biennale 2019.

The perfume makes customers feel the energy and freshness when they smell it, so I used Éne as my branding name. Éne means power in French, so the bottle and lid's shape looks like a firework. The figure shows the energy erupts in a split second.

The erupt's shape is the spirit of this branding fragrance package design.

All graphics such as business cards tasted paper, traveling packages..etc. Keep the bottle's erupt shape.

The clients are businesswomen whose ages are 23-35-year-old women. Those businesswomen are working hard every day and are very busy. They need energy in the morning, so they need perfume with fresh smells to refresh themselves.

The primary color for the whole branding is fire red because fire inspires people to think about energy.

This project won a silver award from the Muse Design awards 2020, a bronze award from the IDA Design Awards 2019, the Winner of GD USA Inhouse Design Awards 2021, and an honorable mention from Graphis New Talented Annual 2020.

OJOY is a product line of traditional famous Taiwanese specialty desserts and teas used on eastern Thanksgiving day.

I designed the character of OJOY; the inspiration for the role is the Chinese word, 月.

月 means moon in Chinese. OJOY's products are used in the Mid Autumn Festival, which is also called the Moon Festival. It has a similar meaning to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The moon's shape inspires the round shape.

There are six product lines: bean paste cake(cookie), pineapple cake(cookie), mooncake(cookie), black tea, oolong tea, and beauty tea.

All graphics and the branding identity look rounded because a circle means together in eastern culture.

Moon festival is an eastern thanksgiving day. I hope everyone can celebrate this holiday with their family and friends.

I made seven packages for branding. Each cake's height is 2cm.

In a combination package, each taste cake or tea bag includes four same tastes.

4x2x3=24cm

3 means 3 flavors cakes, each cake has four same cakes, and each cube has four same cakes in the package.

4 tea bags' heights are 2 cm, and 2 cm x 3 different flavors=6cm

6+24=30cm

Individual cake or tea package

The diameter is 6cm. Cake's height is 2 cm.

Individual cake or tea package

The diameter is 6 cm. Cake's height is 2 cm.

Put everything together, six cakes, and 24 tea bags for each taste.

Using paper broad or cardboard to segregate each taste of cake or tea.

12 cm long.

This project has won A Design Awards' Iron Award, Muse Design Awards’ Silver Awards, and DNA Paris Design Awards’ winner.

THE PHOENIX (BLUE BACKGROUND WORKS ARE THE WINNER FROM DNA PARIS DESIGN AWARDS.)

I designed this key visual poster for Taipei Music Academy and Festival combines the violin with the image of flame, the phoenix, and the sea and music's sonic (music waves). It makes people feel the smooth lines, the sea's feeling, sonic waves, and musicians' enthusiasm.

The center image combines music waves and a violin shape image, and it looks like a phoenix spreading its wings. The orange-colored waves in the center of the poster represent a flying phoenix. The phoenix represents hard work and the enthusiasm of musicians and all the staff.

The overlap between a violin shape image and orange-colored waves looks like a flame, representing the enthusiasm of musicians and all the staff.

The shape in the background represents the feeling of flying in music and waves of music.

I hope people feel like floating clouds and flowing water, a natural and flowing music style when they hear the instrumental performance.

violin photo resource: Cho-Liang Lin’s violin picture

BRAND AND GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR CHO-LIANG LIN(SILVER AWARDS OF GRAPHIS DESIGN COMPETITION.)

This project won a silver award from IDA International Design Awards and Graphis.com's Poster Annual 2021

I designed posters, web banners, easy cards, bags, and T-shirts for Mr. Cho-Liang, Lin, one of the world's best violinists. He led a professional music festival, Taipei Music Academy & Festival 2020, in Taipei.

The violin is the primary visual for Taipei Music Academy & Festival 2020. The violin scroll looks like a conch and can catch people's attention.

All words surrounded the violin's shape, and then people can follow the visual line to see important information.

I also made vector graphics of the violin's scroll for easy card design.

Besides, I made vector graphics for bag and T-shirt designs.

Violin photo resource: Cho-Liang Lin’s violin

Design exhibition poster design in Flushing Town Hall NYC.

I created images representing respectively in seal script and modern Chinese fonts to reflect the conflict and contrast between the warm human sentiment and the cold reality of life.

Similarly, friendly fonts and commercial fonts in English are used to represent respectively the opposing concepts of kindness and cold.

I want to represent how people have gradually forgotten traditional moral values and customs due to intense competition in an overly industrialized and commercialized society. For many, kindness and warmth are considered outdated ideas from a bygone era.

Many people are solely focused on pursuing the latest technology and achieving fame and success.

Design project:

LOVING MESSAGE

Concept:

I combined the Chinese words love, 愛, and love to be a typography design. You can see LOVE from top to bottom and from bottom to the top. LOVE will be union and looks like 愛.

There are two LOVE words in this poster, and they overlap. Two LOVE words will be union and look like 愛.

Black and golden color represent the elegance of NYC.

I want to communicate. We still have to keep our kindness and positive attitude at this time. Respect all living beings, the natural world on earth, and love people.

GRAPHIS'S SILVER AWARD WINNER, GENOVA BIENNALE 2021's design project, and Honorable mention in Poster Stellar Design Awards.

Design project 2:

LOVING MESSAGE POSTER 2

Concept:

This poster I made called "雲開日出," which means “The sun scattered the clouds.” It’s a Chinese idiom, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” I believe New Yorkers and the world can get through it during COVID-19.

I designed the Taipei Music Academy and Festival's program book cover and content 2021.

The book coverage has been shown in the MuseConnect Gala art and auction exhibition and Tamara Art Awards art exhibition in Venice, Italy too.

This project got the honorable design mention from Graphis.com's New Talented Annual design competition and was shown in Florence Biennale 2019. In addition, it has been published on packageoftheworld.com, one of the best package design projects online galleries globally.

I made a branding and design logotype for a new brand that came from the city named Mutambu in Burundi in Africa.

The branding name represents African culture, and the logotype's shape I made is curved. The forms look similar to art crafts in Mutambu in Burundi. This branding serves eco-friendly and natural ingredients. All the materials were extracted from plants in Mutambu. These cosmetics are 100% natural. In this situation, I decided to use leaves to be my graphics. Mutambu has many banana trees, so I used curved tree leaves for branding visual design consistency. Logotype and tree leave all look arc.

I made leaves in round shapes because my typography was curved. The typographical shape resembles handicrafts in Mutambu.

This project got an honorable mention from the Graphis design competition's New Talented Annual 2020 and was shown in Florence Biennale 2019.

I made a new brand and package design for Brooklyn because I was living there before.

The brand name is Black Blast because the color black usually reminds people about beer.

I also wanted to surprise people when they saw it, so I chose Blast to be part of the name. Logotype and graphics are pop art styles because so many pop artists emerged from Brooklyn.

This project won the honorable award of the New Talented Annual 2020 from Graphis. com)

It was a group project where we remade a brand's logo, graphic, and package design. We chose Arrowhead Mills. Our target clients were 20-30 years old single men and women. We wanted them to have three flavors of pancakes and syrup in one package, so they didn't need to spend more money to buy syrup and other flavors. We also thought we should use frozen pancakes so they wouldn't have to spend too much time cooking. Moreover, 12 pancakes are enough for single women and men to eat.

There are three flavors of pancakes-original, chocolate, and blueberry. We used an American typeface and warm colors to show a wholesome American style because Arrow Head Mills was found in the 1960s in the USA. It's an organic and traditional company. Moreover, we made it with round curves to imitate the pancake's round shape. So it's easy for people to open the package.

These are the practicing works I've made in Taiwan.

E'LE FRE

This project is one of my projects at SVA's continued education. We made branding designs for products of our choosing. I decided on a French-style hotel aimed at business people on vacation.

I found out that New York City's hotels are divided into two kinds of hotels. One is cheap, but with very few services, and the other one offers many functions but is very expensive.

My ideal hotel is one with excellent services and food at an affordable price point. I decided my fictitious hotel would be a French-style hotel, elegant and deluxe. The French national flower, Fleur-de-lis, inspired my logo. Fleur-de-lis represents hope and liberty. I want guests to feel free and comfortable in the hotel. The name E'LE FRE means elegance and relaxation in French. I hope office workers can be relaxed when they stay in this hotel.

In designing the logo, I used purple as my primary color because purple also represents elegance. I made different logos and logotypes and finally decided on a shape that looked like a flowering Fleur-de-lis. I want to show that the hotel is elegant and you can do anything you want there.

Design name:

Illusion

Description:

A lot of illusions show up in this world. It is hard, to tell the truth, or merely a lie, tricking people into making them lost in the concrete jungle. Sometimes, what we see is the so-called truth, which may be a well-designed illusion.

Design name:

Breath(Artworks that showed in the Fusion exhibition, which supported by UNICEF)

Description:

This project is one of the first works I made. It also has been shown in the "Fusion" art exhibition, which UNICEF supports.

I made this poster for people who live under significant pressure. I hope everyone can take a deep breath and approach nature.

Design name:

Born in Nature

Description:

I made this poster and hope people will spend more time on environmental issues. Human beings are mammals. We were all born equal because we were born in this beautiful world. Saving the earth is our duty.  

Design name:

REVIVE再生(Muse Connect Gala's art exhibition and auction's works)

Description:

After this year's pandemic, all the people, animals, plants, and the whole earth were changed and reborn as a new beginning.

Although there are many sacrifices and unhappiness, The natural world will find its way and gradually regain its former vitality.

Design name:

Psychedelic

Description:

Everybody could be the director and create their own stories in the imaginary world. Accidentally slip and fall, one could not quickly tell illusion from reality as before.

Design name:

MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL's poster

UIUX for Taiwanese e-commerce websites

 This project is a practice project in which I made magazine spreads for Arden Hills club & spa, a place for people to hold weddings.

This is one of the projects in the School of Visual Arts’ continuing education.

I made three different book covers for Pet Sematary, made by Stephen King in our school's course. We have to choose a book that we like and redesign book covers for it.

TYPOGRAPHIC

Romance

This was one of my projects at my graduate school, Pratt Institute.

First, I had to choose a word and made my words represent that word's meaning and feeling.

I made my type like a key because we find romance at any moment and in any place. So it's like a key that people feel in a moment.

Beitou

I used a Chinese writing brush to create a new typeface for Beitou, an Taipei city area. This area has hot springs and Japanese-style buildings, so I want to make a type representing the traditional style in Taiwan.

Disappear

" 消逝 "means disappear in Chinese, so I made the type that looks like fly out and keep away from the ground.

This project was a class assignment. The client, CADE (The Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship), asked us to redesign their logotype, so I made this logo for them. My concept was to make it modern and eye-catching.

Cade also asked for marketing strategies. I could make an infographic folding poster for them. I created an infographic in Adobe Illustrator to show how CADE helps New York State farmers sell their products and deliver NYC goods. I thought the infographic would make it easy for people to understand what CADE is doing and catch people's attention.

It's a folding poster. People see CADE and Lucky Dog(The delivery agency) logos first when they fold the poster and see the world opportunity in the back view. It means Cade+ Lucky Dog=opportunity.

I worked on this project during my graphic design internship. 

I made artworks that represented the company's aesthetic: nightmare, fantasy, and mystery.

The other project is group work.

I led a team to make an art exhibition, Interstice, on 03/02-03/03 2019 at Chelsea Manhattan, NYC.

The yellow line represents the light between

Apertures, which are the subject concept of the art exhibition.

We designed different yellowed color pictures to fit our subject on Instagram.

Art Exhibition: MuseConnect Gala in Flushing Town Hall NYC

Art works’ names: Capriccio

Design work's concept:

The concept of the theme comes from the musical term "Capriccio", which in the early days referred to free-form polyphonic music, generally upbeat music. The baroque period used to refer to a cadenza in music. During the Romantic period, it was interpreted as music that followed the lively and free imagination of the performer.

The subject of the art exhibition is very open to musical works of art.

So I create geometric patterns that represent unlimited, very creative musical waveforms and the unrestrained imagination of the artist, and the colors are mainly diverse and joyful.

Art Exhibition: Taiwan: A World of Orchids

Art works’ names: PLUM BLOSSOMS, ORCHID, BAMBOO, AND CHRYSANTHEMUM

Design work's concept:

In our culture, plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum represent the four gentlemen of flowers.

These flowers and plants all symbolize honesty and never go with the flow.

Even though we have suffered so many painful and unfortunate experiences, I hope that all of us can maintain our inner virtues.

I designed simple geometric figures to apply to these flowers and plants to give them a sense of clean design.

I followed these flowers and plants' shapes to design simple geometric figures to make them look like clean designs.

Work's name: Distance

Art Exhibition place: World Trade Center

Design work's concept:

"I arrived as a swollen white form, then gradually I became a darker gray. I am being crushed in between the two colors and forms; I am confused about who I am; other times, I feel distinctly clear."

Art Exhibition: “ Writing the Diving Comedy 2022”

Art works’ names: Repentance and Rebirth

Design work's concept:

It has been shown in the art exhibition “ Writing the Diving Comedy 2022” which was supported by Brussels’s government and European Union National Institutes for Culture at Brussels Town Hall, Van Meenen.

I discovered that no one had made pasta packages that included multiple past and oil flavors, so I decided to create a new package that no one had done before. I put five flavors of the pasta and one container of olive oil in five triangular prism packages and put them in a hexagonal column box. The hexagonal shape always catches people's attention and is easy to take out. After cooking the pasta, the hexagonal container can be used for storage.

The other project was done for detergent package design.

It's a practice in one of my design courses in Taiwan. I redesign RT-MART's logotype to make it more modern.