My name is Frank Liu. I am a graphic designer with a lot of passion for typography.

I am not a traditional art student, I did not had a lot of art training, which is unlike most of my classmates. At first I was trying to get into Industrial Design, but accidentally, I ran into the world of Graphic Design and got trapped in a swamp called typography. I found a sense of freedom when I was doing my first typography project using Helvetica, that is when I decide to screw Industrial Design. Graphic Design is awesome! Type is awesome !

As a Graphic Designer, I also really like the Swiss Graphic Design, I really enjoy the order and timelessness in those design. They tend to use type as a tool to transmitting message purely and using color, shape and imagery to express emotion. I always found that to be interesting. And many designers including me are greatly influenced by Swiss Graphic Design.

But, I found type to be a highly effective medium to communicate when the audience could understand the words. The preciseness of wording make room for misunderstanding a lot smaller. And if we alter the shape of letter based on the needs, it could end up being a really neat and simple solution.

So, I am always asking myself, do I have to use imagery and shape to express an idea or emotion? Can I go with a pure typographic approach? Therefore, I did a lot of experiment when I was doing class project, some works out wonderfully, some gets bashing by professors hardly. So, the answer is depends on the situation and do not apply crazy effects on type.

In the future,I want to be a problem solver utilizing the knowledge of design and business in the future. Because, I personally think Graphic Design is a subject that based on business, it’s an extension of business, without talking about business and the people we are in service of, the work we are creating will inevitably become a form of art.

I am highly agree with what Paul Rand said about Identity Design———“A good logo provides the pleasure of recognition and the promise of meaning.” And I believe that also apply to most of subjects in Graphic Design.

In my current design process, I always trying to find the sweet point between functionality and emotional expression. And these two factors are equally important to me as a designer. I feel a design is unreal if it is highly functional but comes with no emotion at all. For example, all of the template generated design, it has no difference with the text message blob that we seen everyday on our cellphones.

In my understanding, design is a behavior of organizing the emotion and message with a rational attitude. As a result of design, we will be receiving a well organized limited chaos.