20160122 portfolio(job)_Zhang Shaojing

3Zhang Shaojing Sylvia | 2015 Portfolio

(852) [email protected] maybekizuna.carbonmade.com

Room14,13/F,Hang Tung Bldg Block A, 1116 Canton Rd,Yau Tsim Mong Dist., Hong Kong


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* Please note that all the plate numbers of picture are in sequence from left to right, top to down.

86 Degrees Tea

That year we were in HK

Prologue Limited

The Unvoiced

Book Design

Tattoo

Limb-holic

Cat-holic

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86 Degrees Tea is a cafe that started business in 2015, selling milk tea and traditional Chinese snacks in Quincy MA, USA. And in 2014 it needed an interior wall design reflecting its style. I was interested in this project so I sent my resume to its owners. After seeing my previous works, they decided to work with me on it.

After several months of discussion, draft modification and negotiation with the constructor, this wall was completed with black pattern on clear acrylic board and multiple-color-LED backlight. Although my initial plan for rendering this black-and-white design was a chalky texture on blackboard, this acrylic version was a surprising execution. When I saw the pictures when it was done, I was glad that we made a good choice. Since the backlight could be lit in multiple colors, the interior environment would then match different occasions and seasons.

1.1 Interior Wall Design | 11x7ft | Oct.-Dec. 2014

Interior wall with different LED backlight | 1259B Hancock Street, Quincy, MA 02169

Interior wall design | 11ft x 7ft | 2014

project.

01 86 Degrees Tea2014-2015Interior Wall Design + Promotion

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1.2 Promotion Design | 2014-2015

After finishing the wall design, I was in charge of the promotion materials of 86 Degrees Tea, including posters, flyer, leaflet, invitation card for opening, etc.

1. T-station poster | 42x30cm | Aug. 2015 2-3. In-store posters | 42x30cm | Apr. 2015

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In 2014, when I was in the 7th year of living in Hong Kong, I started a comic series in collaboration with my friends: That Year We Were In HK in Dialogue between Two Sides, which is a book about Chinese Mainlanders in HK.

As mainland students and graduates studying and living here, far away from our hometowns, we thought our experience would empathise among the people who were also in between of two different cultures. Working with the scripter Tokie, I tried to convey this special type of living, as well as people’s struggle, dilemma and mindset through my drawings.

In this book, the story shows how four young people - Tan Xinshi, Jiang Daoli, Liang Baikai and Han Kouhao - came to HK. They were from different parts of China and of different ages. Because of their own reasons they decided to pursue degree or work in Hong Kong. They didn’t know each other before. Because of department rending, they met, became roommates and helped each other on this strange land.

2.1 Comic in Dialogue between Two Sides | 2014

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02 That year we were in HKSep.-Dec. 2014Comic series about Mainlanders living in HK

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Sylvia Zhang. 2014. That year we were in HK: How I came to HK. In Dialogue between Two Sides, ed. Carrie Tang and Tokie Han, 168-186 .Hong Kong: Today Publications.

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1. Instalment - Happy Single’s Day on Wechat of Gangpiaoquan | Nov.11, 20142. If you are interested in the story, feel free to scan the QR code to read the comics on Weibo of Gangpiaoquan. (Sorry for only Chinese version available.)

2.2 Comic series on Weibo of Gangpiaoquan | Sep.-Dec. 2014

After publication of the book, Scripter Tokie and I decided to continue the story on Weibo/Wechat platform of Gangpiaoquan.

The instalments started from Sep 25th, were released every Wednesday and continued for four months. It showed different aspects of the four people’s lives in HK, from long-distance relatinship, studying in university , learning Cantonese, working with HK colleagues to having a part-time job as Mandarin/English teacher.


Festival pictures I created for fans.

2.3 Comic Festival pictures

1. For New Year | Pencil | 42x30cm | Dec.31, 20142. For Thanks-giving Day | Marker-pen | 30x21cm | Nov.24, 20143. For Halloween | Marker-pen | 30x21cm | Nov.2, 2014

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2.4 Umbrella Movement in HK and The Comic

“The Umbrella Revolution, used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, was a series of sit-in street protests that occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) came to a decision regarding proposed reforms to the Hong Kong electoral system. The decision was widely seen to be highly restrictive, and tantamount to the Chinese Communist Party’s pre-screening of the candidates for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election in 2017 before the candidates are presented to the Hong Kong electorate.

Students led a strike against the NPCSC’s decision beginning on 22 September 2014, and the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism started protesting outside the government headquarters on 26 September 2014. On 28 September, the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement announced that they would begin their civil disobedience campaign immediately.....Police tactics (including the use of tear gas) and attacks on protesters by opponents that included triad members, triggered more citizens to join the protests, occupying Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.The number of protesters peaked at more than 100,000 at any given time, overwhelming the police thus causing containment errors.”

-- 2014 Hong Kong protests, Wikipedia

During this period, every day I saw many changes on the streets. Hong Kong people used lots of ways to express their thoughts peacefully, such as all the posts on the Lennon Wall at Admiralty.

Since I was living in Mong Kok, I also saw conflits between policemen, sometimes Mainlanders and HK people. I was impressed by Hong Kong people’s behavior. Their manner, patience and persistance led me to know more and know deeper about the relationship of China government and Hong Kong SAR.

Not surprisingly, all the information about this movement was blocked by mainland media and GFW. Whenever I posted something about it on social media like Wechat, the post would be deleted quietly several hours later. Though I could discuss it freely with my colleagues and friends in HK, for my friends in China, it seemed to be a taboo.

So in the comic instalment on Oct.28, I drew an umbrella in one panel. It was not deleted in the end.

In Dec. 2014 because of many reasons, this comic series stopped. But in the course of creating That year we were in HK I learned a lot through working with my friends, and got a clearer, deeper understanding of self-identity as a Chinese Mainlander. I also found that my skill as a picture story-teller was far from mature and I had a long way to go.

1. Protesters protecting the barriers | from twitter | Oct.14, 20142. Policemen applying pepper-spray | from Apple Daily Newspaper | Sep.28, 20143. The umbrella man | from twitter | Oct.1, 20144. Protester holding umbrella for police | from twitter | Oct.1, 20145. Sit-in street protests | Photo shot in Mong Kok | Sep.29, 20146. Instalment - Struggling for job forever on Wechat of Gangpiaoquan | Oct.28, 2014

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Prologue Limited is an online tutorial company in HK. It offers both online and offline courses for HK middle school students. I worked as a graphic designer here from Feb. 2014 to Mar. 2015, where I was in charge of editorial design,website design, promotion materials, video editing, short comic series on Prologue’s Facebook page, etc.

Working with the programming colleague, I was in charge of setting up this edu.prologue.hk website of small group courses for primary and middle school students. I applied monument icons as the basic elements of the website and continued to use them in the note cover design afterwards.

3.1 Website design | edu.prologue.hk | Sep.-Oct. 2014

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03 Prologue LimitedFeb. 2014-Mar. 2015Working as Graphic Designer

1-6. Website pages of edu.prologue.hk


3.2 Note Cover | 2015

After the website, I was in charge of designing covers for these Chinese, English and Mathematics teaching materials.


1-3. Teaching materials covers | 42x30cm | 2015


For middle school text book and website, I created some info graphics as course icons and illustration.

3.3 Info graphic and icons | 2014

1. Course Icons | 20142. English writing anatomy as humburger | 2014

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I was in charge of PROLOGUE’s comic page - Aboy on facebook and regularly posted short comics reflecting middle school students’ life, in order to encourage them in a funny way.

Please scan the QR code below to read more of them!

3.4 Facebook comic page - Aboy | 2014


1. Cell phone and review night | Apl.17, 20142. Mock Exam week | May.22, 20143. Correct way to use Loose leaf ring | Jun.6, 20144. Correct way to use white out | Jun.6, 20145. Missing eraser | Mar.7, 20146. After Exam | May.5, 20147. 1000 likes congrat | Apl.9, 2014


4.1 The Unvoiced | 30x18cm | 2013

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04 The UnvoicedHKBU AVA 2013 Honors Project Things hidden in the spoken words 1-3. Cover, table of content and inner page of The Unvoiced

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In The Unvoiced, I was looking for the faint relation between communication, dialogue, language, sound and voice. I started collecting and recording the imprints left by “voice” in my life, and tried to depict the voices of my friends. Sometimes when the expression is not visible, the voice only could be more natural, conveying clearer information.

At the first stage, I wrote proses about sound and voice. Then I sent them to my friends to read in their most comfortable language, and collected their recordings. I hadn’t seen some of them for a long time. So listening to their voices again became a voyage to memories for me. From this voyage I discovered some lost memories of the remoted people and the past periods. And in the last, by the memories buried in sound, I created pictures for their voices one by one and compiled the book.


4.2 Origin of The Unvoiced

I’ve been having the doubts about “sound” for a long time.Why is it uncomfortable for someone to hear his/her own voice released from the recorder?Why is it that for psychological counselling at early stage, the patients usually talked in the darkroom and the psychologist judged only by listening?

There have been a period of time that I got to know about a person’s character merely by listening to his voice. From his written words in the beginning to his voice in more dimensions, I gradually built up all the information about him. Therefore I got particularly sensitive to the quality of voice .

I find that the most vivid memories stored in my mind are in the form of sound or voice. In one’s voice, his/her bias, phobia, hidden characteristics and the attitude toward the very listeners are buried inside. The same words may not always convey the same message. So I feel that people’s voice is more honest than their words, talks and expressions.

During the making of The Unvoiced, I also found that observing my own voice was a way to face myself honestly. So this book was a series of researches, an answer and a farewell to some memories for me.

1-9. Inner page of The Unvoiced | 2013

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4.3 Graduation Exhibition | Jun. 2013

The display of The Unvoiced at HKBU AVA Campus.

1. Whole room view2. Book on display with speaker and headphone (to play the recordings of voice)3. Caption on the wall4. Drawings on the wall5. Name card

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5.1 A Close-up to Hong Kong Girls | Printed and Bound | 12x12cm | 2012

In Hong Kong, people like to use the term “Kong Neoi” to refer to Hong Kong girls, which has the meaning of “material girls” beyond the words. In my eyes, even they sometimes are materialistic, they are actually quite multi-dimensional in this particular society - Hong Kong. In this book I zoomed in to have a close observation, from their fashion, language to daily life, to get some ideas more than the stereotype.

These are the Hong Kong girls living beside me. As a mainland student studying in HK, it’s quite diffcult for me to find certain adjectives to describe them as a whole. But if someone could look into them carefully and respectfully, he or she would find them just like the collages of eastern and western culture, and that they are more lovely than the term “Kong Neoi”.

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05 Book Design2010-2012Self-bound books

1-9. Cover and inner pages of A Close-up to Hong Kong Girls

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5.2 The Encounter | Black marker-pen | 20x32cm | 2010

During my studying in Carroll University, I made this book as a 2D and 3D design class project.

At that period of time I met and had many new friends. They changed me in different aspects, from my thinking habit to my way of creation. So this drawing book was made as a memorial for the intersection of our lifes.

1-6. Cover and inner pages of The Encounter

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5.3 15 min in the Garden | Watercolor | 10x15cm (folded) | 2010

Experimental hand-made accordian book as a 2D and 3D design class project.

1-4. Cover and inner pages of 15 min in the Garden5-6. Working in progress

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When I felt down, I had a habit of drawing something on my wrist by gel-ink pen. It’s a very accessible way to help cheer myself up soon. Later on I started to draw on friends’ wrists. It’s so enjoyable to see them waiting and smiling when I finish.

Actually it didn’t take much time for me to think about what to draw. When meeting him or her, their personal identities and their mood natually gave me hints about what kinds of pattern could fit them. I felt that everyone had his/her own atmousphere that might be translated to some icon, pattern or something else.

project.

06 Tattoos2010-PresentPatterns on wrist

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1-22. Tattoo patterns drawn for people during these years | Gel-ink pen | Size varies


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07 Limb-holic2010-2013Observation of limbs

7.1 Untitled | 2012

Influenced by the art of Marina Abramovic and dance of Pina Bausch, I was fascinated in motion inside the gesture and the language conveyed through body and hand.

Limbs give out the hint of one’s desire, tanglement, habit, worries or obsession subconsciously. In order to depict the unspoken words, I tried to capture the message through them and started to work on drawing related to limbs.

1-4. Untitled | Watercolor | 21x30cm | Nov. 2012

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7.2 Digital Imaging & Painting

Aside from watercolor, I also tried some other media to observe the movement of limbs.

1. Untitled | Photoshop | 20102. The Dialogue I | Oil Painting | 80x120cm | 2013

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7.3 The Dissidents | 2013

“Li Wangyang was a Chinese dissident labor rights activist. Following his role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he served twenty-one years in prison on charges of counterrevolutionary propaganda, incitement, and subversion....On 6 June 2012, one year after his release from prison, and a few days after a television interview in which he continued to call for vindication of the Tiananmen Square protests, Li was found hanged in a hospital room. Shaoyang city authorities initially claimed suicide was the cause of death, but it was revised to ‘accidental death’ after the autopsy.”

-- Death of Li Wangyang , Wikipedia

This series of painting was a painting class project reflecting social events. Throughout Chinese history, many people who stood against the Communist Party like Li were erased quietly and their truth would be hidden forever until nobody could remember. I think this is a true version of 1984 by George Orwell. So I made these painting series as memorial of Li Wangyang’s death and many other dissidents with miserable fate in China.

1-5. Working in progress 6. The Dissidents | Watercolor | 23x31cm7. The Dissidents II | Oil Painting | 30x40cm8. The Dissidents III | Oil Painting | 60x80cm

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47Zhang Shaojing Sylvia | 2015 Portfolio 21Zhang Shaojing Sylvia | 2015 Portfolio

7.4 Studies of Muscles | 2014- Present

In order to draw human limbs in a better way, I studied human body through sketching. Usually I did a rough sketch of anatomic human body in 30 seconds first, and then refine the positions of muscles part by part. By practising this for several months, with a clearer understanding of the muscle structure in mind, I felt more confident when drawing movement of bodies without reference.

1. Some sketchings | Pencil and Ink-pen | May 2015


Cafe Idea is a Cat cafe in Mong Kok, HK. The owner would like to have their cats’ image on the umbrella as a promotional product. Since I love cats as well as drawing them, I design this umbrella for this cafe.

8.1 Cafe Idea Umbrella Design | Jul.-Aug. 2015

project.

08 Cat-holic2015-2016Works about cats

1. Background image | Watercolor | 21x30cm2. Five cats of Cafe Idea as foreground | Watercolor | 42x60cm3. Final result

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51Zhang Shaojing Sylvia | 2015 Portfolio 23Zhang Shaojing Sylvia | 2015 Portfolio

I started raising a cat named Lukka from Oct. 2013. No matter when I stayed with her, I felt myself get healed and released from all the stress. So I decided to launch on this illustration series. Just like the concept of Sandplay Therapy in psychology, I’d like to create a miniascape out of my imagination, away from the outside world and without any restriction.

8.2 Independent project: Sandplay Therapy [Hakoniwa Ryouhou] | 2015-Present

1. Merry Xmas | Pencil and Photoshop coloring | Dec. 20152-4. Summer days I-III | Watercolor | Jul.-Aug. 20155. Sandplay Therapy [Hakoniwa Ryouhou] Logo | 2015


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00 Thank You for Reviewing2016-Future | Work in your company

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20160122 portfolio(job)_Zhang Shaojing