Meet Alex Mi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Mi.

Hi Alex, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I got into graphic design pretty much like how everyone else did: coming into contact with some kind of photo editing software on an old computer. Throughout my adolescent years, every summer, I would get sent to my grandparents’ home to live with them, and there was not much to be entertained with but to dig around on my dad’s old work laptop. I made my first graphic banner by following a tutorial on a web forum, using MS paint. I would create more and more of these images throughout the school year, sometimes to post on the internet or just for fun. I started using Photoshop to create layout designs for student magazines and school yearbooks in high school, but never thought of it as a career path to pursue. I went to USC initially for Art History, but after taking the first year Art History program and being walked through LA’s street art sites, galleries and art museums, I realized that I wanted to do more than just studying and curating art; I wanted to be the person creating them. That’s when I decided to start focusing on learning graphic design. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It was quite a sudden change for me to switch my main focus over to design – it had always been just a side hobby for me before then. I didn’t have enough work to complete a comprehensive portfolio and was still adjusting to my new life in LA. I took my college classes during the day, and every night at 6 pm sharp, I would dedicate all my time to working on my portfolio until 12 am before going to sleep. I continued working on this schedule for my entire freshman year. I doubted if I could make it since I hadn’t received any formal training in art until college. Throughout college I had this confusion and imposter syndrome, feeling that I was only pretending to be a graphic designer, and not actually knowing how to design. Entering into the professional field of graphic design was an even bigger challenge: I had no idea how everything works, I get nervous with my own abilities, the whole working process was very different from how people worked in school. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a graphic designer who mostly works in branding, motion, and editorial. I would describe my visual style as quirky – a bit removed from common taste, and I always try to leave a bit of a twist in my designs. I like to work with different mediums and bridging the two in design, exploring concepts that no one had given a thought about before. In my personal projects, I’ve created a set of publication designs dedicated to people who are nearing the end of their lives, exploring topics like death education, our relationship with modern medicine, and the acceptance of mortality. For my work in branding, I led the design system development for Govball 2023. In the beginning of the project, I created around 20 different posters, each exploring a possible approach to expressing Govball’s youthful and exciting identity. These ideas were then refined and combined through working within the team and with our clients, eventually producing a bright, fun, variable system that was a refreshing new look for Govball 2023. 

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Ideas are only fully conceived in the process of creating – nothing can ever be fully planned before starting to work on it. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alex-mi.com
• Instagram: hazu_am