Conversations with Rozi Zhu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rozi Zhu.

Hi Rozi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Designer at the Instagram team at Meta. Prior to joining Meta, I worked at some impressive studios in the past, including Studio TheGreenEyle, Dazzle Studio, and BUCK. I’ve contributed to lots of exciting projects such as the Dream in Dior Campaign, Art and Ideals Exhibition, MTV VMA’s Art Exhibitions, and more. My clients include Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Asahi Group Holdings, Bank of Mexico Museum, Carl’s Jr, Chowbus, Dior, Google, IBM, Meta, MTV, OnePlus, Pzaz, the Kennedy Center, and the School of Visual Arts.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My path has always been exploring and discovering my inner self by experimenting and exploring in unconventional design territory. As I’ve been working on lots of commercial projects, I recognize that a problem for many clients is that they are repeatedly presented with staggering and “established” design solutions which are already prevalent in the market.

As for me, I always try to avoid getting too comfortable and stay in the safe zone. It is necessary to continually develop novel techniques and apply innovative approaches to the professional design industry as I strive to push the limitations of the current design and the boundaries of the design standards. Of course it is very difficult and takes lots of effort and energy besides the day-to-day work, but I do feel it is necessary and it’s worth it.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a multidisciplinary designer. Many of my recent projects and especially commercial projects have been about exploring the relationships between physical interaction and our online presence through Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. For example, in the ‘Dream In Dior’ Campaign, I worked on lots of graphic assets as a designer and collaborated on building the AR experience as a part of the technologist team. Once again, I’m now proudly working at Meta as a designer on the Instagram Team – one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, and I can’t wait to see how my work will touch the billions of daily users in the near future.

Besides working for big brands like Google, Dior, and MTV, I enjoy creating experimental designs on my own, exploring original combinations of different materials and media. For my series Material Types like Bubble Type and Ferrofluid Type, I created physical computing installations to present the typography in novel ways based on the physical properties of different materials.

Another example would be my interactive project, Handy Type, which revolutionizes type design by integrating interactive hand-tracking data into its dynamic font creation process. Departing from traditional pre-designed typography, Handy Type makes the type design experience more accessible so that anyone can craft personalized fonts from anywhere, at any time.

My personal projects have won a lot of awards, including TDC Ascender, Print Awards Hand Lettering and Type Design First Place and Editors’ Choice, TDC Competition Winner, Communication Arts Interactive Winner, and Tokyo TDC Prize Nomination.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think one important quality is to be brave. I am not afraid to embrace the most cutting-edge technology and merge it into design. I’ve also attended design and technology events like the Inscript Type Festival as a speaker, along with many other famous designers and studios, sharing our latest experiments and projects with the community. I hope our innovative use of technology and novel design techniques can inspire professionals and evolve the industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rozi.design