Danyang Ma

Painting has been my passion since childhood. In middle school, I started using Photoshop to create art collages and design pieces. This experience helped me gradually develop a personal art style and realize I wanted to become a creative professional.

I am an independent freelancer. Apart from my full-time job as a visual designer at Pinterest, I'm also taking project-based inquiries. The work is mostly about branding and social design; some categories are cosmetics, retails, and media app

I am a thinking-and-feeling combined designer who believes every piece of design is there for not only aesthetic needs but also for a greater purpose. Design is to help both clients and users find solutions and communicate their messages.

One of my favorite kinds of design is social media design. It engages you in various platforms and design mediums, such as ad still graphics, editorials, motions, and films. It is l also like creating content or a small intensive campaign for a brand.

A good design always follows the pattern of nature, making the form pure and easy, and the product itself shall be reasonable and intuitive, dedicated to details, aesthetic, and precise. Furthermore, there is a purpose behind all good design, with an innovative approach embedded in long-term visions.

I have carried a bold, playful style throughout school and professional design works. It speaks simplicity and strong emotions at the same time. This visual language helps enrich dialogical communication among designers, clients, and audiences, provoking a double-way conversation.

The process starts with interpreting and identifying the message my clients want to convey through design. They were followed by researching for inspirations of logos, layouts, styles, etc. And then, I would create 3-5 sketches of the first draft. Let the clients decide which direction they prefer. And then proceed with designing the art direction and the rest of the deliverables.

The Implicit, flexible, and delightful touch in traditional Chinese ink painting has influenced my preference in design, along with the philosophy of elevating the art through blankness, the balance of emptiness and completeness, and the sense of breath.

I'm very grateful for the honor of receiving the silver award for packaging at the 2023 Muse Design Awards. To design the packaging for VOODOO HOUSE, I have been researching African art styles and the Voodoo culture for a long time. It was a dynamic and exciting process.

The packaging design of VOODOO HOUSE is based on the concept of voodoo spells - one of the most mysterious and fascinating African cultural heritage. I tried to adapt different spells to represent coffee blends, from dark to light roast. Packaging illustrations are inspired by African tribal totem art, expressing handcrafts. I especially enjoyed working on illustrations that imply the concept of tribes, symbolic characters, and rituals.

I especially enjoyed working on illustrations that imply the concept of tribes, symbolic characters, and rituals. I have conducted plenty of research at museums and voodoo stores, taking photos and studying materials and ingredients used for the voodoo practice.

It was my first time utilizing handcrafting and printing techniques in a design. It encourages me to keep practicing and exploring different mediums and design methods. The award has also helped me gain more recognition in the field.

Peer designers, new design technologies, and innovative forms of art.

Chinese characters have built an independent visual system for typefaces and the typography design approach. The characters are more symbolic rather than letter-based, like in Latin languages, which is a refreshment to the design archive.

In the next 5-10 years, it's possible to imagine technologies will take over more executing tasks, leaving designers more space to focus on ideation and conceptualization, also further enhancing digital effects to help designers create more impactful and stunning works.

Being creative makes people excited. Designers are always trying out, looking for, and exploring new ideas. And consistency makes a significant difference.

Some platforms I can think of are Pinterest, Behance, and Youtube. From Pinterest, you get great, random initial ideas, and there are always fantastic design feeds on Behance. And whenever you have a technical problem, seeking solutions from Youtube tutorial videos is helpful.

It took me several years to find out what kind of design I'm good at working on, which are branding and social, and I'm positive they will switch to something else in the future.

All of my designer friends I made, and will be making during my academic and professional career. It is a pleasure to work together with such talented people.

I get most of my motivation by simply talking to people. And once you're surrounded by encouraging and inspirational talents, the situation will push you to pursue a better self.

Thanks so much for this interview. It was a pleasant opportunity to enter Muse Design Award 2023 and, even better, win it.