Stari is a partner student project created with Virginia Liu for the Color Theory class taught by Adam Ross at ArtCenter College of Design. This project takes the form of a hypothetical blind box series.

In a realm where ancient craftsmanship meets the cosmos, Stari were born: modern talismans inspired by traditional Chinese knots. Each knot threads together unity, harmony, and boundless fortune, while each color carries its own emotional frequency and symbolic energy. To collect a Stari is to collect a moment of synchronicity, and a small reminder that magic reveals itself when we remain open to wonder.

The identity system uses Neue Montreal by Mat Desjardins as the primary sans serif, grounding the brand in contemporary clarity and structure. Lucy Rose by Ellen Luff introduces elegance and sentimentality, subtly echoing tradition and storytelling. Ohno Softie by James Edmondson is reserved exclusively for the logotype, its rounded, plush forms reinforcing the warmth and playful tactility of the blind box experience.

“Garnier – Everyday Touch” is a student rebrand identity project made as part of the Packaging Design 2 class taught by Ania Borysiewicz. It reimagines the brand through the lens of ritual, sensuality, and evolving heritage.

Hair is a ritual, evolving with every new chapter and reflecting our heritage. Infused with nourishing botanical ingredients, each formula transforms the everyday into an intimate act of care. More than maintenance, this is a return—to touch, to tradition, to the quiet sensuality woven into daily life.

The identity uses Univers as the primary typeface for its clean, modern precision and structural clarity across the system. IvyPresto is used exclusively for the logotype, its expressive serif forms introducing elegance and softness that echo the brand’s botanical heritage and refined sensuality.

This publication design project was created at ArtCenter College of Design for Communication Design 3 with Carolina Trigo.

This project tells the stories of Hiroshima bombing survivors who transformed their trauma into art, delivering powerful messages of hope and resilience. Inspired by Sadako Sasaki’s 1,000 paper cranes, the design incorporates folded imagery and carefully treated typography that mirrors the act of folding paper—symbolizing both the creation of something beautiful and the delicate balance between strength and fragility.

The work highlights the profound impact of collaboration—not only as a force behind the devastation of Hiroshima, but also as a path toward peace and understanding. Just as collective effort contributed to destruction, it can also be redirected toward compassion, healing, and hope. The binding reflects this tension between delicacy and endurance, honoring the past while inspiring future generations to foster empathy through shared artistic expression.

The typography pairs Neue Haas Unica for its clarity, neutrality, and modern restraint across the body text, while Shippori Mincho introduces a quiet elegance and cultural resonance that reinforces the project’s emotional weight. Together, they balance sensitivity with structural precision, echoing the harmony between fragility and strength embedded in the narrative.

mona is a student rebrand project created at ArtCenter College of Design as part of the Communication Design 4 class taught by Wendy Thai. This fictional project reimagines the Museum of Neon Art through a renewed visual system, positioning it not just as a museum, but as an experiential portal.

The Museum of Neon Art is no longer just a museum—it’s a charged space where science, art, and motion converge in an electrified dance of discovery. Visitors are invited to step into neon’s full spectrum: immersive, transformative, and alive. Through art, storytelling, and sensory experience, the identity celebrates neon’s curious spirit and ethereal presence, awakening awe while honoring its vibrational energy. This is neon reborn, where energy becomes art.

The identity uses Lexend as the primary typeface for its clarity and contemporary warmth, supporting accessibility and readability across the system. MuseoModerno is reserved exclusively for the logomark, its fluid, futuristic curves embodying neon’s movement and luminosity.

The Bodies We Call Home is a student project created at ArtCenter College of Design as part of the Type 4 class taught by Stephen Serrato. This publication is presented as a hypothetical art catalog, imagined as a curated collection of works exploring queer intimacy, resistance, and care.

The catalog’s typography—featuring Playground, Alegreya Sans, Editorial New, and Eiko—balances playfulness, warmth, and editorial refinement. Together, these typefaces move between softness and structure, echoing the emotional vulnerability and resilience at the core of the work.

Curatorial Statement:

Queerness has long been under attack—from historical criminalization to the government’s neglect during the AIDS crisis, where thousands of lives were lost in silence. Yet in the face of devastation, queer communities turned to intimacy as survival. Acts like the AIDS Quilt became declarations of love, grief, and resistance, proving that queer lives mattered. Today, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and societal pressures echo those painful histories, politicizing queer bodies and threatening the right to exist freely. But intimacy remains a radical force—woven into activism, art, and quiet care shared between chosen families.

Queer intimacy exists in the quiet moments of touch, in the unspoken understanding between lovers, and in the collective strength of chosen families. It is spiritual, physical, and emotional—a force that holds, heals, and empowers. Love, in all its forms, is an undeniable human right, yet, it remains under threat. The ability to love and be loved should never be taken away, for it is as essential as the air we breathe.

I was tasked with transforming Eleanor Heartney’s essay “Postmodern Heretics” into a standalone zine. The essay, originally published in Art in America in February 1997, examines the Catholic influence on postmodern art, specifically the transgressive art movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The design of the publication takes cues from Catholic visual vernacular to mirror the essay's themes. The zine opens like a triptych, and each page utilizes a cross-like proportion. The paper stock, color palette, and typography all take inspiration from biblical layouts, and other subtle design gestures throughout the piece call back to themes of the church.

Made as student project at ArtCenter College of Design.

Weaponized Innocence is a newsprint publication made as student project at the ArtCenter College of Design. It explores the exploitation of children in warfare, combining striking visuals, impactful storytelling, and a thoughtful design. It transitions from the harsh realities of child soldiering to messages of hope and recovery, emphasizing UNICEF’s vital role in protecting and rehabilitating affected children.

Permanent Headline was chosen for headers due to its bold intensity and resemblance to war headlines. In the first half of the editorial, the tightly tracked, blurred, and posterized letters convey the chaos and brutality of war. In contrast, the second half transitions to loosely and evenly tracked letters, symbolizing the hope and freedom UNICEF brings to children.

Pitch was selected for body text, offering a contemporary take on monospaced typewriter fonts that lend a governmental and matter-of-fact tone. Quotes are highlighted in red in the first half and blue in the second, with larger, all-caps type emphasizing key points at the end of each paragraph.

Made as student project at the ArtCenter College of Design, this 64-page book offers an in-depth exploration of yellow journalism, combining ironic imagery with thought-provoking captions to challenge readers' perceptions of sensationalist media. Each image is carefully paired with insights into common logical fallacies, creating a compelling narrative that critically examines the mechanics and impact of fake news. By deconstructing these deceptive tactics, the book invites readers to engage with the content on a deeper level, fostering media literacy and skepticism.

The design draws heavily from traditional newspaper aesthetics to reinforce the theme. The use of Garamond Premier provides a classic, authoritative tone, while the incorporation of a grainy texture evokes the tactile feel of old-school print media. This juxtaposition of traditional elements with absurd, exaggerated visuals highlights the inherent contradictions of yellow journalism, amplifying its critique.

The layout balances structured grids with dynamic compositions to guide the reader’s eye, ensuring each page is both visually engaging and informative. Strategic use of white space and high-contrast imagery creates tension, further emphasizing the dramatic and often misleading nature of sensational headlines. The book not only serves as an artistic exploration of the subject but also as an educational tool, equipping readers with the knowledge to identify and question false narratives in their everyday lives.

As a student assignment at the ArtCenter College of Design, instructor Charles Lin presented the following context:

Simon & Schuster, a publishing institution with a century-long legacy, undergoes a strategic rebranding following the US government’s intervention to thwart Penguin Random House's acquisition bid. This shift heralds a new era for the company, positioning it as a champion for underrepresented voices and diverse narratives.

Simon & Schuster now serves as a beacon for small-scale and marginalized authors, reshaping the literary landscape by elevating unconventional forms of expression. This rebranding initiative encapsulates the company’s commitment to fostering dialogue and inclusivity, envisioning a literary culture that transcends boundaries and embraces controversy as a catalyst for meaningful discourse.

The logo design utilizes the S from the typeface Voyage – which also reads as an ampersand. The ampersand symbolizes the brand’s commitment to unity, collaboration, and the joining of voices. Just as the ampersand brings together separate entities into a cohesive whole, the rebrand strives to amplify voices that have been marginalized, and illuminate stories that have been overlooked.

Editorial New, crafted by Pangram Pangram, elevates the brand with a sophisticated and contemporary aesthetic. Its lighter weights exude elegance, refinement, and subtlety, making them ideal for sub-headers. The heavier weights make bold statements, boasting lush curves and exaggerated forms for enhanced expressiveness. Additionally, the luscious and curvy italics serve as a pattern system, adding dynamic flair to the brand communication.

The brand voice echoes the harmony of the emotional and rational, the timeless and contemporary. IBM Plex Serif combines components from classic typefaces like Bodoni and Janson into a contemporary serif, bridging the gaps between Simon & Schuster’s long-standing heritage and relevance in the modern era.

Today’s Chinese government wields formidable tools—state-controlled media, pervasive surveillance, and censorship—to maintain its control. This book ventures into this paradoxical world where, amid escalating control, a brave group of Chinese artists employs photography, film, graphic design, and modern art to reveal truths, often at great personal risk. They stand as voices against the suppressive grip of censorship.

Seek Truth was made as a student project at ArtCenter College of Design. See more images on the project website.

Seek Truth spans across 72 pages of premium coated paper, organized into three distinct sections. The first section, “A History of Oppression”, chronicles the historical instances of Chinese citizens enduring various forms of oppression enforced by their government. In the second section, “Voices of Resistance”, the spotlight shines on contemporary Chinese artists who courageously defy the CCP, risking their lives to advocate for free speech and express dissenting viewpoints. Concluding the book, “A Silent Unity” delves into the ingenious strategies employed by protestors and ordinary citizens to amplify their voices within a perilous landscape where any form of dissent poses significant risks.

The poster unveiling the launch of Seek Truth, displayed prominently in Chinatown, showcases a provocative depiction: a defaced portrait of Chairman Mao, with the title revealed through a prominent tear. Overlaid onto this image is a gallery displaying all the featured art pieces from the book, serving as a tribute to the courage and sacrifices of Chinese artists. The tearing and paint alterations were executed by hand, photographed from above. The Chinatown landscape is realized through MidJourney AI.

“A scalable solution for carbon removal” is what Pasadena-based Captura offers. Their process uses renewable energy to remove CO₂ from seawater and amplify the ocean’s natural removal of carbon from the atmosphere – all with no additives or by-products.

Captura’s brand typeface is Stray, which is ued for the all-lowercase logo. On the website, headlines in Stray are paired with Karla for text and Fraktion Mono for the menu, buttons, section headers and more.

A student project designed at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena for Donald Judd’s exhibition at MoMA, including a (fictional) exhibition catalogue and posters. By capturing the internal rhymes of Judd’s name and forming typography as an image, a typographic identity was created.

Geometric shapes are a significant aspect of Judd’s works. Therefore, for this project, I chose Futura and Avenir, two geometric typefaces, as the primary and secondary typeface. To mimic the style of Judd’s artworks, I created two strong vertical alignments. Additionally, Judd’s name contains several alphabets with rounded shapes (e.g., a, d, o). Therefore, all lowercase letters were used to create repeated graphic interests and utilize the nature of these rounded shapes.

Supervised by Simon Johnston.

This poster series announces the (fictional) launch of the book X by Y – a collection of materials that explores the theory of queer ecology and promote the key ideas from the book. Both the posters and the book are part of a student project made at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

While queer sexuality is frequently criticized as a crime against nature, nature is exploited and considered lower than culture. Queer ecology critiques the heterosexist notion of nature and dualistic ways of thinking. The project invites viewers to appreciate the non-binary world and challenge prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.

Inspired by the biodiversity of California, the debut product from Cheeks + Co, Tidalshift, prepares your skin to face the elements.

The digitally forward brand brings the spirit of place to the customer through site-specific coordinates and a QR code. Something radically different for an industry that positions itself as high-end and often delicate. Our strategy was to celebrate the resilience of the skin for the nomadic woman who is ready to face any climate.

See also the post about Cheeks + Co’s general identity. For more images and a full list of credits, see our case study.

A complete makeover for Cheeks + Co, a luxury facial spa in Pasadena paving the way in clean skincare.

With a second spa location on the horizon, we built a flexible brand experience and identity with the ability to grow. Over the course of 12 months, we were Cheeks + Co.’s in-house design team and designed a variety of collateral from gift cards, shopping bags, custom tissue paper, spa menus, and exterior signage.

Creative director & designer: Meryl Vedros
Strategist: Samihan Shani
Web design: Samihan Shani, Meryl Vedros
Web development: Bode Digital
Photography: Meryl Vedros, Tim Hennessy
Video production: Jason Adler

Detail from the website

The Art Center College of Design View Book appeared around the Art Center College of Design 1999/2000 catalog, that was previously published on Fonts In Use.

The catalog (107 pages) introduces each area of study together with course requirements and course features. The “View Book” is a much condensed version of the comprehensive ACCD catalog consisting of 24 pages with an order form for the catalog.

The Cholla typeface family was designed in 1998–99 by Sibylle Hagmann and named after a species of cactus indigenous to the Mojave Desert. Cholla was originally developed for Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Denise Gonzales Crisp, then art director of the college’s design office, collaborated with Sibylle Hagmann to design a family of typefaces that would include a vast variation of font weights. This diversity of styles was applied to echo the institution’s different areas of study, yet the typefaces were to exhibit a unified feel.

Formally the individual styles have slightly varying personalities with subtly distinct ideas applied, but all weights share a tapered curve marked out as, for example, in the lowercase a’s bottom transition from the stem into the bowl as their unifying detail. The Cholla family was first used in the radically designed 1999/2000 Art Center catalog, which won a honorable mention in I.D. magazine and was featured in EYE, 31. Cholla’s original weight range as designed for ACCD included 12 different styles.

The extended range of 20 weights, bundled into Cholla Sans, Cholla Slab, Cholla Wide, and Cholla Unicase subfamilies, was included in Emigre's font library and offered for distribution soon after the foundry received a catalog (mailed by Denise Gonzales Crisp) that featured Cholla. The typeface family was introduced in Emigre magazine #50, “Think Ink”, and became successful in the following years.

Cholla received some awards, among them one for Excellence in Type Design from the Type Directors Club of New York in 2000. The Cholla type family was a winning entry of bukva:raz!, an international type design competition of the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) in 2002. It is featured in Language Culture Type, edited by John Berry and published by Graphis, New York, 2002, a publication that presents the winning entries of bukva:raz!.

Cholla was one of the typefaces showcased in the exhibition Frische Schriften (Fresh Type), at the Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, Switzerland, in 2004. Experimental Typography, edited by Teal Triggs and published by Thames & Hudson showcases in-depth sketches of Cholla’s development. Frische Schriften (Fresh Type), Edition Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, 2004, with texts from Andres Janser, François Rappo, and Fred Smeijers also includes a feature on Cholla.

Build Your Safety Kit is a Los Angeles earthquake safety guide designed and illustrated by Jillian Stiles when she was a student at ArtCenter. The title is set in Aglet Sans, which is paired with a similarly rounded but more technical Automate in the subtitle and section headers. Univers is used for the body copy.

The Internet Archive is a digital library located in San Francisco, California. The organization’s mission is to provide “Universal Access to All Knowledge.” Just like other public libraries, it offers free public access to collections of digitized materials, including books, images, movies, audio, software, and websites.

For the Internet Archive's new identity system, made as a fictional project at ArtCenter College of Design, Internet Display, Media77, and Px Grotesk are the three typographical choices. Internet Display, designed by Yicen Liu, was inspired by the PetaBox which the organization uses to sort, store, and distribute information to the public. Media77, designed by Team’77, is very legible at small sizes, and full of refined details at display sizes. Px Grotesk, designed by Nicolas Eigenheer, has an unprecedented aesthetic with solid grotesque roots and works well both on screen and in print.

Along with the concept, typography, colors, and other visual elements, this rebrand of the Internet Archive seeks to share information and extend knowledge without any limitation.

For more information, please visit yicen.info.

1973, deep in the Era of Brown. This typeface is Aquarius, designed by Ronald Arnholm and released by VGC shortly before, in 1972. The logos of Bell & Howell and CEC/Instruments Division are probably custom drawn. The slogan “We’re rewriting the book” is set in tightly spaced caps from Gill Sans.

Bell & Howell is a former manufacturer of cameras, lenses, and motion picture machinery, founded in 1907 in Wheeling, Illinois. CEC was a chemical instrument manufacturer founded in 1937 by Herbert Hoover, Jr. in Pasadena, California, and merged with Bell & Howell in 1960.

Digitizations of the complete catalog are hosted by Bitsavers as well as by John T. Jackson, Jr, who comments:

Bell&Howell Datatape, located in Pasadena, California during the 70s and 80s designed and manufactured state of the art magnetic tape recorders which were typically used for telemetry by military and aerospace facilities and laboratories. NASA used them to record the Apollo missions video which became the “Lost Apollo Tapes”. The early ballistic missile launches at Vandanburg Air Force Base were recorded on the one inch wide tape. Other laboratories such as Los Alamos and Sandia had many of them. The US Naval recorded sonar for spectral analysis.