Good design is not just about aesthetics. It makes a product more valuable, understandable, unob trusive, honest, long-lasting, and environmentally friendly. Developing a good design takes time and patience to observe and understand the audience and hear different perspectives. Growing up, I was sensitive to people's emotions, behavior, and envi ronmental changes, which led to my strong interest in problem-solving strategies that transform obser vations and research into practical solutions.
Paper to Petal ( Editorial Design )
Page 06—19
Holistic Beauty ( Rebranding ) Page 20 —43
Plant Cure ( UI/UX Design ) Page 44 —61
Page 62—75
Translation ( Packaging Design ) Page 76 —87 Playing Notes ( Annual Report Design ) Page 88 —101
Interstellar ( Experimental Typography )
Beyond Design ( Conference Design ) Page 102—123
Motion Graphics ( Motion Graphics & Video ) Page 124 —149
Redesign a book of our choice into a coffee table book. It needs to feature large images and all the necessary compo nents of a book, such as text, captions, titles, and subtitles.
Paper to Petal is a craft book written by Rebecca Thuss and Patrick Farrell, partners in the multidisciplinary photography and design firm Thuss + Farrell. The book is currently designed in a more colorful and luxurious style to display the paper flowers, while I intend to focus more on the elegance and subtleness of the blooms themselves.
Page 06 to 19
Course Type Composition Instructor John Nettleton Semester Spring 2020 Category Editorial Design
In this project, we identified a dying or defunct brand and redesigned a new strategic plan while staying true to the brand’s soul. The process entailed researching the brand’s past and mission and creating a new identity and a future direction for the brand.
Pond’s is an American beauty, health and beauty care brand with a unique heritage of innovating skincare breakthroughs. The brand’s soul is its holistic approach to helping people live healthier lives, while the brand strategy reflects only part of the brand soul. I decided to evolve the brand beyond skincare products and introduce self-awareness products and services to create a balanced and confident lifestyle so that people who are Pond’s customers can glow both inside and out at all times.
Page 20 to 43
The Nature of Identity Instructor Hunter Wimmer Semester Spring 2022 Category Rebranding
Objective
Research the target audience’s demographics and current representations of the topic, align ideas, and develop pro motional campaign strategies. Use interactive designs to solve a problem within an area of interest of our choice
Plant Cure is your pocket plant doctor that can diagnose what is wrong with your plants and provide treatments and online consultations. It helps people who enjoy gardening quickly identify why their plants are dying, including pos sible plant diseases, pests, and lack of nutrients. The app provides potential treatments, consultations, and ways to care for sick plants.
Course
Graphic Design 3: Nature of Interaction Instructor Lloyd Mitchell Semester Fall 2021 Category UI/UX Design
( Project Four )
We chose a poem in a language we could not read. By observing the letterforms in the poem, we created draw ings, patterns, and shapes. We eventually received the English translation of our poem and mapped our explora tion to draw new connections, and visual projections in our final deliverables.
I received a Portuguese poem for the project. After playing with the letters and forming various patterns and graphic shapes with them, I learned from the English translation of my poem that it is called “In the face of so much change”, and it was written by one of the finest poets of the Portuguese Renaissance, Bernardim Ribeiro. I decided to design a set of wine bottles, including labels, a wine box, packaging, and a restaurant window sign to reflect the poem’s message.
Page 62 to 75
Course Type Experiment
Instructor
David Hake Semester Spring 2021 Category Packaging Design
( Project Five )
Objective
Research and choose a company in a field that we are interested in and design an annual or CSR report for the selected company.
I chose to redesign the annual report for Yamaha Corporation because I grew up playing their piano, and classical music has always been a major part of my life. I started the design process with research, a design brief, moodboards, sketches, initial direc tions, and refinements. Eventually, I developed an annual report around the concept of music to represent the Yamaha Corporation.
Page 76 to 87
Course Type Systems
Instructor David Hake Semester Fall 2020 Category Report Design / Infographics
( Project Six )
This project allowed us to explore typographic forms in a new way. We were asked to choose between either Akzidenz-Grotesk or Century Schoolbook typefaces to experiment with and create our dream forms using materials and media we were unfamiliar with. The final deliverables were movie posters and a film trailer.
Dreams reflect and refract our daily reality. I researched how reflection and refraction manifest themselves in nature and translated these phenomena into experimentations with type. I used a projector, water, different glass shapes, mirrors, and monitors and changed the density of the liquid medium to create various refractory effects. Then, I chose the movie Interstellar for the poster design and developed a trailer to reflect the concepts of reflection and refraction as they appear in the film.
Page 88 to 101
Course Type Experiment
Instructor David Hake Semester Spring 2021 Category Experimental Typography / Movie Posters
Create materials for a hypothetical or actual design conference. The deliverables include promotion posters, website look, and feel, program, name badges, signage, mobile website, or app look and feel.
I developed the hypothetical conference—Beyond Design , because I believe design is a process, or an implementation of a process, which seeks the solution to a problem with a particular purpose. It is not limited to a specific design but is a holistic approach to defining actionable and intelli gent solutions. I researched and incorporated professionals from different industries that significantly influence design trends and incorporated them into the program of the hypothetical conference.
Page 102 to 123
Instructor David Hake Semester Fall 2020 Category Conference / Environment Design
Objective
The section of my portfolio contains four motion graphics and video projects that explore and the principles of animation, visualizing music, art direction, book trailer, and film trailer.
Shaping Music is a project inspired by the musician Mattia Cupelli, who composed a musical piece expressing his idea of the ocean waves. I translated his music into motion graphics by using simple shapes and minimal colors and combined the idea of the origins and geometry of life into the project.
The Roaring Twenties incorporates the Art Deco style, visual elements and my interpretation of the movie The Great Gatsby, and using a period typeface designed by A.M. Cassandre.
Transparency in Nature is inspired by Byredo's perfume—Blanche, and the founder's perception of white and capturing a person’s innocent and untainted side with a fragrance almost transpar ent in nature.
I Want My Hat Back is a book trailer for a children’s picture book by Jon Klassen. The book tells a cumulative tale with a mischievous twist. I used the Puppet tools in After Effects and selected a piece of quirky music to match the book’s theme.
Page 124 to 149
Course Motion Graphics
Instructor Frank
PietronigroSemester Spring 2022 Category Motion Graphics & Video
Music expresses that which cannot be said and about which it is impossible to be silent.
I was inspired by one of my favorite musicians, Mattia Cupelli. He composed a piece called “Waves,” which captured the mysterious and majestic essence of the ocean. I translated his music using simple shapes and minimal colors and combined the idea of the origins and geometry of life into the project.
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/693403686/49026f4de2
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set on Long Island during the Jazz Age, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. The Art Deco era is characterized by harmonious, clean, geometric, sleek, usually uncomplicated, and visually pleasing forms. I incorporated the style's main visual features and used the typeface Peignot, designed by A. M. Cassandre in 1937, for the project.
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/693403825/677ccc30e1
If you see with innocent eyes, everything is divine.
Byredo's perfume, Blanche, explores the smell and texture of skin; bodies slipping beneath fresh sheets; laundry baskets filled to the brim. The founder, Ben Gorham, developed the perfume, as the name suggests, around his perception of the color white. He wanted to capture a person’s innocent and untainted side with a fragrance almost transparent in nature. I used different shades of white, the refractions when the sunlight passes through the perfume bottle, to translate my perception of the perfume.
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/740251136/9b00a58d03
“Nobody has seen my hat. What if I never see it again? What if nobody ever finds it?”
I Want My Hat Back is a children’s picture book by author and illustrator Jon Klassen. The story is about a bear who has lost his hat and wants it back. The bear wanders around and asks all the animals he encounters whether they’ve seen it. The book tells a cumulative tale, building its strength on repetition and theme, and ends with a mischievous twist. I used the Puppet tools in After Effects and selected a piece of quirky music to match the book’s theme.
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/740250876/faec064851
( Project Nine )
Objective
Almost 60% of coffee species could become endangered by 2050, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. REVIVE aims to raise consumer awareness and protect coffee from becoming endangered in the future.
Coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world and is rooted in our culture. Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee daily, and coffee farms are the economic live lihood of over 125 million people. However, research indicates that climate change could cause at least 60% of the coffee species to become endangered by 2050. The disappearance of coffee could impact millions of people’s lives. There are knowledge gaps between baristas and the general public, and they need efficient ways to communicate with one another.
Page 150 to 205
MFA Thesis
Instructors
Phil Hamlett
William Culpepper Jeremy Stout
Semester
Fall 2020 to Spring 2022 Category Design Solutions
“I heard about the coffee issue before, and I want to help!” Amy Yang, Student (San Francisco)
“Coffee is a culture. You can explore the city through coffee shops.” Yi Zhu, Visual Brand Designer (San Francisco)
“I was born in a coffee background, but I don’t drink coffee often.” Lennox Liu, Student (San Francisco)
“I feel better after seeing the statistics, I was worried I drink too much.” Catherine Sun, Art Director (San Francisco)
“I need caffeine and sugar!” Mark Lai, Software Engineer (San Jose)
“I am shocked to hear about this!!” Summer Xia, Sales (Oregon)
“I am more of a tea drinker, but I drink coffee sometimes.” Aishwarya Naidu Bobbili, Architect (Boston)
“The coffee prices will increase a lot!!!”
—Felix Felgemacher, Sales (Karlsruhe)
“I don’t realize there is a coffee crisis.” Mia Wang, Student (Karlsruhe)
“We try our best to lower carbon footprints, but it is hard to regulate the consumers.”
Ivan L., Owner (New York)
“We know many roasters are already conscious of it!”
Liwei Hsuan, Owner (Tokyo)
“We didn’t know much about the issue” Kamimura Haruko, Barista (Tokyo)
How to diminish the knowledge gaps and develop an efficient way for baristas to communicate with the general public about the coffee issue?
How to make consumers protect coffee without quitting coffee?
REVIVE creates interactions and conversations similar to coffee with the coffee drinkers, makes the consum ers aware of their coffee habits, teaches them types of sustainable coffee certifications and provides reward systems to encourage them to protect coffee.
REVIVE creates experiences and emotional connections similar to the relationships between coffee and people.
REVIVE adapts to the consumer's behavior and makes them feel comfortable about changing their habits to protect coffee.
1 Manager Megan (Starbucks)
3 Baristas
Nick (HITW Coffee), Jasmine (Illy Cafe), John (The Coffee Movement)
2 Coffee Drinkers
Summer Xia (Student/Salesman), Catherines Sun (Art Director)
Visited the shop in-person and interview the baristas and a manager. Most of the baristas are used to customers talking to them when they are working. I think it makes them feel more comfortable in that environment when interviewing them.
Arranged Zoom meetings with coffee drinkers to conduct the user testing. Virtual interview
*All user testing sessions had been recorded.
( Thank You )
Dear Mom and Dad, brothers, grandpa, grandma, uncle, aunt, and cousins, you always tell me that doing what you love and being happy and healthy are the most important things in life. I am grateful to have you unconditional ly supporting me in changing my career path and pursuing my dream.
Mary Scott, thank you for your patience, dedication, and guidance in teaching us. You inspire and motivate me to develop various design direc tions to create a portfolio I am proud of. Thank you for encouraging and for having confidence in me when I have doubts about myself.
Phil Hamlett, thank you for guiding me and always providing resources, advice for a successful career, valuable insights into my thesis concept, and information about sustainability.
William Culpepper and Jeremy Stout, thank you for directing me to develop design solutions and deliverables for my thesis, and for teaching me time and project management skills.
David Hake, thank you for helping me to express my creative side. Your confidence in me encouraged me to experiment and explore design possi bilities. And thank you for always providing valuable and positive feedback.
John Nettleton, thank you for your attention to precise typography skills, inspiring my passion for this aspect of graphic design.
Hunter Wimmer, thank you for your detailed and clear instructions on developing projects that helped me build solid designs, and for always sharing your entertaining life stories with us.
Frank Pietronigro, thank you for being a genuinely phenomenal teacher. I couldn’t list all the things you have taught me, but the most important thing is that you ignited my passion for motion graphics and always provid ed positive energy to encourage me to enjoy and love art, design, and life.
Lloyd Mitchell, thank you for teaching me structural methods for developing effective UI/UX designs and solutions, and providing detailed feedback to help me improve my designs.
Susan Pasley and Monica Berini, thank you for helping me express myself and explain my perspective and the intentions of my design, always with a positive attitude and humor.
James O'Hara, thank you for providing detailed notes and resources in the portfolio class and helping me refine and express the writing content for each design project and my portfolio book.
Sejal Petal, Brian Minards, Erin Kristine Canoy, Jarrod Armour, Maw Shein Win, thank you for teaching me in my classes. I learned a lot from you and appreciate your time and effort.
Catherine Sun and Ethan Chang, thank you for taking care of me, experiencing new things together, and taking me out for delicious food when I am overwhelmed with work.
Summer Xia, thank you for always making me laugh, paying attention, and sharing my tears and joy.
Bableen Chopra, Ruby Weng, and Yi Zhu, thank you for giving me con fidence and feedback on improving my designs. It is nice to have you as friends while studying at the academy, learning and having fun together.
Ami Yang and Lennox Liu, thank you for inspiring me with conversations about design and life while we were studying together in class.
Rex Cong, thank you for providing valuable feedback on my thesis and always encouraging and supporting me when I am out of ideas.
Heather Tang, thank you for helping me with the portfolio class. It has been a pleasure studying with you in class.
Evelyn Liu, thank you for accompanying me through various classes, working and studying together.
Ivan L., Liwei Hsuan, Kamimura Haruko, Megan W., Jasmine D., John O., Nick, Aishwarva Naidu Boobili, Felix Felgemacher, Mia Wang, Mark Lai, thank you for providing valuable sustainable coffee insights on my thesis and showing your support.
Academy of Art University School of Graphic Design
Student / Mintzu Yu Major / Master of Fine Arts, Graphic Design Instructor / Mary Scott
Book Title / From Perception to Reality Typeface / Neue Haas Grotesk
Photo Credit / Tiffanie Turner, Juan Davila, Anne Nygård, Robert Hurt, Chevanon, Chris Lee, Joske Simmelink, Artem Sarani, Elizaveta Dushechkina, Ahmad Odeh
Paper / Mohawk Superfine Eggshell #100 Text Printing + Binding / Blurb®
Contact Mintzu Yu mintzu.yu.design@gmail.com www.mintzu-yu.design
Copyright © 2022 by Mintzu Yu
All rights reserved. No part of the publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from Mintzu Yu.