Context and Framing

The only thing can wake me up is design.
– Xiaohan Li

Hi, I’m Xiaohan Li. A passionate Designer.

Things I like about being a designer are creative exploration. Thinking through ideas and coming up with a visual solution and illustration of the ideas. Getting your own idea from daily life. I also like to draw and take nice photos of my daily life.

My Design Skill (The main software i used for design.)

Illustrator (For Vector drawing）
Photoshop
Indesign（For print and presentation)
Photo shooting
After effect (For 2D cartoon video）
Video cut
Drawing

In this blog

– The project I do in my university class and my freelance work. I chose my name for this blog because I haven’t been able to come up with a good name.
As a graphic designer, my design process is not as easy as many people think. Firstly, when I get my project brief, I’d like to look at the brief very carefully, highlight the key point which I need to concern about. Secondly, I’d like to research and brainstorm the design element, which could be used in the final design. Also, I’d like to search for some similar design works as a part of my design brainstorm. Considering the concept, target audience, and color is part of the research. These two parts sometimes take more time than others. Thirdly, I’d like to draw some drafts and create a mood board for my design work. After that, I started working on the design. I usually make 2-4 different designs work and pick the best one for the outcome. Finally, I ‘d like to print out or do some digital mock-up for the final design work.
All the design process I will detailedly show in my each design article.

What kind of design works you can see in this blog？

– Package Design

– Publishing & Layout Design

– Branding

– Poster & Billboard & Banner

– GIF & Video

– Interactive Design

– UX & UI Design

– Photographic

Target audience

Design students /Design companies /Designers
Which I choose to publish on my blog are my favorite works. For each work, I will detail explained the concept, idea and design process. I will also write some essays within my personal opinion in design.

For design students: It doesn’t matter if you’re in your first year or your last year, You might know the general design process, the placement or website where you can get some design information and inspiration, and the software skills from my blog.
For the designer: You can find some different design elements, concepts, briefs and inspiration from my blog which can help you get some useful information in your daily works. You can also find some creative and fun designs on my blog. If you are looking for some Chinese element, welcome to my blog. I’m Chinese, so I always bring some “Chinese style” in my design work.

For design companies: If you are looking for a designer who has a different cultural background. Welcome to my blog and hire me after. You can get my level of design and my preferred design style though my design works.
I’d like to discuss the design works with my audience on the message board.

Three Personas

Lizzie is the company’s sole designer and is responsible for assisting in marketing.
Main work contents
– Assist the Marketing Department to make some posters

– Assist the Marketing Department to make some printing materials, such as flyer、business card、booklet…

Eric is the art director and HR manager of the whole design company.

Main work contents

Recruit staffs、Check design works

Name: Stella Li Age: 18-25

Highest Level of education: Diploma Undergraduate student / Year 2 right now

Major: Visual communication design University: University of Canberra

Preferred method of communication: Facebook/Email/Canvas/Face-to-Face

Tools: Design software/Office software

Report to: Course tutor Goals: Graduate and get a job

Gain information by: Online, Course tutor, Library

Biggest challenge: Design thinking/Concept/Problem solving/design inspiration/Software used

Personas image was getting from: https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona

Theme

Website layout style：Clean and Simple

Reason：As a designer, the main purpose of the reason why I create a blog is to let my readers see my works. Keep the whole page clean and simple can help my readers keep their focus on my works. The font I choose for the whole blog is Helvetica, Helvetica or Neue Haas Grotesk is a widely used sans-serif typeface. This font is very easy to read and doesn’t have any special features. In my opinion, it is suited for different stylish designs. I use my favorite color-purple, as the main color in my blog. I plan to create a 4-5 section on my blog’s home page. Each section has 4 square buttons – contains a short brief image of each section work.

There are still far away for me to get that stage (The final blog) . Firstly, I need to create a logo for my blog. Secondly, The related Facebook, Instagram, and maybe youtube page should be update at the same times. Thirdly, I need to create a video about introduce myself and upload in my blog.

At this stage, I cannot create a real stylish website in word press. So I make a layout sketch for my real stylish website. (see below)

Draft style and layout（Sketch style and layout ）

Reference

1 Wikipedia, 2020, Design, viewed by 29th February <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design>

2 Gear, 2019, Helvetica, the World’s Most Popular Font, Gets a Face-Lift, viewed by 29th February <https://www.wired.com/story/helvetica-now/>

3 Sylvia Lewis, 2015, Design Process: Tips from an Expert Graphic Designer, viewed by 29th February, <https://designers.hubspot.com/blog/graphic-designer-design-process-tips>