Today we’d like to introduce you to Alina Deng.
Hi Alina, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Guilin, a southern small town in China that is famous for its unique natural scenery and local customs. Guilin has become a valuable symbol of China through the quintessential photograph of an old man with a cormorant fishing on the Li River. China has been developing rapidly since the 90s, but Guilin city has continued to remain the same, with no plans of industrialization. Since I was young, I have always liked drawing and making little zines. The color and shape of Guilin’s mountains and rivers enlightened my aesthetics; nature and local culture are rooted in my creation conceptions.
As many Chinese families have around the time a child is able to enter college, I was met with an internal struggle between my parents, who wanted me to have a stable career in the field of engineering, and myself, who wanted to major in art. I eventually chose to pursue urban planning, which surprisingly gave me a lot of insight into design. For example, I got to understand how the local community affects and is affected by design decisions. I was also deeply inspired by many architects and their works, like Kazuyo Sejima and Zaha Hadid. While I appreciated my education, I never gave up on my dream to become a designer. I worked as a freelance designer and earned a lot of commercial design opportunities for myself. In 2018, I enrolled in Pratt Institute and was able to expand my understanding of design meeting great designers from all over the world. Now I am working remotely for a startup that is based in New York.
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?
There are definitely a lot of struggles along the way. I self-taught myself design from the beginning by trying to imitate anything that I thought was “cool” or “pretty”. This was a great way to learn the design basis, but I hit a plateau when I mastered all the digital software and was able to imitate some good designs. I was lost in building my personal style as all my works at that time were driven by the market demand or the design trend. A question kept echoing in my mind: what is design for? Is it supposed to gain business profit, to create aesthetically pleasing products, or there is something else? I stopped working and went to Pratt. I had lots of time to work on my personal project freely and understand my inner self. In a project called “Chinese Doll”, I tried to address the issue of the struggling and obstacles my friends and I faced as a female growing up in China. I found out how design could be a strong and poetic language that addresses social issues and more.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work as a graphic designer in a retail startup and I am responsible for creating work that supports small businesses by refreshing their visual identities. While the owner, most of them belong to minority groups, paid lots of time and energy to grow the brand, they often lack resources to build a strong, well-defined visual language to tell their story. I talk with the owners as well as the brands’ customers in order to inject their chemistry into the brand with fun, energetic visual elements. For example, the rebranding project I did recently for Printers Jack, which won the 2021 GDUSA Inhouse Design Award, gave the brand a totally unique experience, helping them stand out from the competition and giving their loyal customers something to get excited about. Empathy is my design philosophy. I could never do any design without talking with others. I start my projects with as many conversations as I can have with my audience, clients, my teammates, and even friends and families. I want to embed people’s real stories and feelings into my design to make it lively and empathetic.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I enjoy the sunshine, food, and our diverse community a lot. I enjoy the sunshine, food, and our diverse community a lot. The thing that concerns me a lot is the mountain fire that became more and more frequent in recent years.
Contact Info:
- Email: gdeng@pratt.edu
- Website: alinadeng.net
