SOCIAL DESIGNER & EDUCATOR
Lixin Kang’s Portfolio
About Me
I am an experienced multi-disciplinary designer with expertise in user experience, design research, social impact, service design, graphic design, and art education. I have worked in the United States and China.
I have experiences working with such global design consulting firms as Lemonista Interaction Design that offer design research and visualization services to their commercial clients and help those clients generate supreme business outcomes. I consider myself as a bilingual design consultant with tremendous work experience in graphic design industry, and I believe my unique background offers effective solutions that can help companies succeed in today’s competitive global business environment.
I received my Master’s degree in Industrial Design at the University of the Arts and my Master’s degree in Graphic Design at Harbin Normal University in China. My international experiences have prepared me to work for businesses that are involved in global relations and are in need of a fresh, innovative approach to social design.
Skill Fluent in Chinese and English. Experienced graphic artist well-verse in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign. Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
2016
2015
2014
USA-PHILADELPHIA
M.F.A. Design for Social Impact
CHINA-BEIJING
M.F.A. Graphic Design
2012
2011
2010
Service Design
Experience Design
Design Research
Interface Design
Graphic Design
Fine Arts
SERVICE DESIGN Research / Synthesis / Workshop
Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurs Ecosystem:
Fortune Cookie in Context Optimizing Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Chinese Immigrants 2016
Novice
Startup
U.S. College Educated Immigrant Entrepreneurs
r eu ren ep rking r t En two ne
The Chinese immigrant community in Philadelphia is not taking advantage of conventional assistance in developing their
1
r Va us
io
to become active through banks, civic groups,
ice
rv
se
Startup
interviews,
workshops and
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one-on-one
Service Providers
U.S. College Educated Immigrant Entrepreneurs
(WCNP) on improving their English class for
4
orship
Disconnected
The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians 1
General Immigrant Entrepreneurs
2
a usability testing session, I defined the
Chinese immigrant entrepreneur ecosystem. I discovered that there was a disconnection between non-profit resources and immigrant entrepreneurs. My project culminated in the creation of a toolkit that offers critical information for Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in their native language.
General Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Spons
Behavior Map
In this four-month long project, I worked with
surveys,
Novice
s
workshops etc.
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for
Nonprofit Organizations
businesses. My goal was to encourage them
entrepreneurs. Through
Experienced Entrepreneurs
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4
ices
erv
us s
io Var
SERVICE DESIGN Prototype / Testing
1
The conversation tool
Flash Card
Template Card
English
Flexibility Sheets
Chinese 2
I designed a tool that is based on The
Self-study tool
Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians
1
‘(WCNP) “English for Entrepreneurs” class curriculum. The tools will help resolve three barriers that Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs face when starting a business: language,
1 The conversation tool
limited time, and financial issues.
2
The self-study tool
1
English
The conversation tool is used to allow
immigrants to practice business vocabulary and many different types of greeting sentences used in American culture. 2
The self-study tool is easily accessible and
Chinese Translation
Chinese
2 Self-study tool
3
Visual Association
Bookkeeping Tool
Phonetic Pronunciation
2
helps the entrepreneur keep track of class Daily
lesson plans on the go. The business owner will have a phonetic phrase written in Chinese that
Weekly
will assist them in speaking English.
Monthly
3
The bookkeeping tool may not help them
get the loan from the bank, but it will help them record their daily, weekly, and monthly income. Finance management is their priority for their business and future life.
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3
The Bookkeeping Tool
EXPERIENCE DESIGN Research / Synthesis / Workshop
Design on a dime Design with the Roxborough High School 2015 In this three-month long project, I worked with the School District of Philadelphia on improving their learning space for the 9th grade students in the career academy. Traditional learning environments will not support student learning in the 21st century. My goal was to engage students in a participatory, co-creative proces to learn how they best like to learn and interact with their peers and
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teachers. I wanted to apply this feedback in creating a new prototype of learning environment in Roxborough High School. (1) The Icebreaker Workshop was conducted to discover what they like and what they dislike during their school day. 2
(2) The Follow-up Workshop helped me confirm insight from the Icebreaker Workshop. (3) The Journey Map allowed me to visualize the granular feedback as the students focused on teaching methods and subject content. (4) Abstract Toolkits were constructed to facilitate conversation that could influence further action for improvement.
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EXPERIENCE DESIGN Prototype / Testing
1
I developed a flexible toolkit for teachers to adapt program based on student needs. It includes an interactive image wall, a journey map, and an abstract toolkit. (1) The interactive image wall is a device that allows students to express their visual likes and dislikes. (2) The journey map allows for students to
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document their daily routine. (3) The abstract toolkit allows students to provide insight on a desired classroom set-up. This project is considered to be a model that could be applied to a larger number of schools in the Philadelphia Public School system and the network of Philadelphia Academies.
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DESIGN RESEARCH Workshop Facilitation
A Collaborative Design Project Design with the Germantown Town Hall Community 2014 Germantown Town Hall (GTH) is a city-owned property built in the 1920s that has not been
Axis & Distributions
1
used since the late 1990s.
1st Axis
The purpose of this workshop was to bring the
Public
Germantown community together to create a set of guiding principles for the reuse and redevelopment of the building.
Alteration
Preservation
The team designed a series of activities to embody residents’ collective values through conversations. With about thirty Germantown participants, we facilitated the sessions with 1
story mapping,
2
axis tooland
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2
empathy
mapping during the workshop. Later, the information collected from these three exercises was briefly summarized by the team and presented at the end of the workshop. The participants’ collective values mainly suggested a hybrid functional usage of the Town Hall, a preservative redevelopment of it, and a sufficient employment of sustainable material.
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Private
INTERFACE DESIGN UX/UI Design
China’s Cultural Heritage Project Design with China Central Academy of Fine Arts 2012 The main goal of China’s Cultural Heritage Project was to develop an iPad program that provides a virtual tour of how to assemble traditional Chinese furniture. This iPad program can develop several different designs through deconstructing the pieces and seeing how they are able to fit together. Through my design, the user can rotate the application 360 degrees to appreciate and understand the traditional Chinese furniture design and cultural artistic conception.
This application won the industry’s Red Dot award. https://https://lixinkang.squarespace.com/interface-design/
GRAPHIC DESIGN UI Design / Book Design / Website Design
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Artist-Shangyi Jin Exhibition Project Design with China Central Academy of Fine Arts 2011 The goal of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts was to allow Chinese artists to display their works in a physical exhibition, as well as incorporating the use of digital media to appeal to their audiences. In this project,
1
I co-designed a user-friendly
digital exhibition space for Chinese artists’ work. The exhibition included the oil paintings and digital displays to present the artists’ style. 2
I developed an iPad and website catalogue of
the works. Through the iPad program, paintings can be viewed and sold to potenial buyers. The catalogue was then formatted into traditional books about the artist.
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FINE ARTS Workshop Exhibition
Artists’ Group Exhibition Ullens Contemporary Center of Art in Beijing 2010 We used light reflection to explore useless objects in the real world with metaphor and abstract expression. The Useless Object workshop team carried out object collection, representation, and reinterpretation. Our work included various media: books, diagrams, and photographs.
Lixin
Phone: 267.331.1678 Email: kanglixinspace@gmail.com Website: lixinkang.com
Design: Lixin Kang / Advisor: Liana Dragoman