Meet Gwen Geng

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwen Geng.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am from Nantong, a small city in eastern China. Like most of my contemporaries, we grew up in single-kid families. My parents wanted my future to be stable and happy because of the difficult circumstances and experiences they had in their generation. I grew up in a rigid environment with their expectations and plans.

I started studying art when I was young, but that interest got stopped when I entered high school. I chose mathematics as my major in high school and applied to relevant universities as my parents expected. I remember it was on a summer afternoon, the moment I submitted my application, it somehow suddenly became clear to me that life had become dull and boring, and I had lost myself in the foreseeable future. I need a chance to rethink myself, and my parents chose to compromise and believe. I took a gap year, got into ArtCenter College of Design, and became what I am now.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Compared with design, life and the pursuit of self is a more difficult journey. In our education system, we are taught more about how to be successful than how to digest failure. Under the influence of this education system, I inevitably became a perfectionist. I become sensitive and unconfident because I can’t deal with my failure.

The feeling of being unable to control makes my expectation of the future becomes wonderful and unknown at the same time. But fortunately, I have met talented and inspiring teachers and classmates in my study life at ArtCenter, I gradually built up confidence and thought about what I really wanted to do.

As a unique design field that covers various aspects, it takes time to find out what I want to do as a graphic designer. My understanding of graphic design was superficial when I entered school, and it took me three years to determine that I wanted to be a transmedia graphic designer. During this time, I had chances to experiment with different design approaches, including branding, spatial design, interaction design, motion graphics and editorial design. The introspections from these experiments have shaped what I am as a visual communicator.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a graphic designer specializing in brand identity, editorial print and visual experience. I explore graphic design across different media. The logical thinking formed by my background in mathematics and science enriches the way I express and think about design. Just as I like to use because and therefore to connect propositions to arguments in mathematical study, I enjoy the process of translating conceptual thinking into visual components in design projects. I think emotionally and work rationally. For me, graphic design is like an invisible thread connecting different aspects of life and I look for the potential of these invisible threads. I look for abstract connections between tangible structures.

What does success mean to you?
Success is never a result but a process. As a perfectionist before, the definition of success was singular to me. The word success is more like a responsibility and a burden. Success is inevitably accompanied by certain achievements. In the past, I regarded the achievement of a significant result as the criterion of success but ignored the process itself is also very valuable.

Contact Info:

• Website: gwengeng.xyz

Image Credits
Gwen Geng