Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Qing Lei. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Qing, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

When I run out of Ideas, I often go online to see the latest design trends. At the same time, I will think about some social problems and some public welfare topics in my free time. This is a good way to exercise design thinking. Because while accepting commercial projects, we may be limited because of cost or other reasons. I’m not saying that’s bad, it’s what the business environment requires. But I don’t want this to become a safe zone for me, a kind of thinking stereotype, or mechanical behavior. I can always keep thinking when facing problems. Sometime I would try to engage with different fields, such as motion media design, 3D design, etc, to explore the possibilities that different visual design ideas can bring.

Qing, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Qing Lei. I am a graphic and UI/UX designer from Guangdong Province, a small city in the south of China. My love for art and design was cultivated from a young age. As a child, I would often doodle and draw on textbooks and was addicted to Japanese manga. In the fifth grade of primary school, with my parents’ encouragement, I started to study drawing, officially marking the beginning of my career in art. At first, in middle and senior high school, my studies were limited to still life sketches and although I love art, the invariable experience of drawing objects made me feel terribly tired and dull. Therefore, when I entered my undergraduate university, I chose the major of visual communication design and began a new exploration of art and design. For me at that time, visual communication design was a very novel and charming subject. In the field of design, I felt I could express my ideas and after about four years of undergraduate study, I had greatly improved my design skills and concepts. I had begun to understand how to use color, typography, and layout to create exciting and effective visual communication. However, my study of design at that time was limited to printing and physical objects; I wanted to explore more design possibilities, thus I decided to enroll at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the United States, Atlanta to continue my graduate studies, hoping to explore more diverse areas of design. Throughout my master’s education, I have completed a great deal of coursework on cutting-edge design trends and best practices while continuously striving to explore different fields in a bid to keep my horizons open. With a focus on visual design, I have developed strong skills in design research, analysis, typography, layout design, branding identity design, UI/UX, interactive web design, and motion media design, etc. During my time at SCAD, I have also developed leadership and teamwork skills as well as a deeper understanding of visual communication design in general. Designers can obtain information through different views, experiences, ideas, and people, and design is also a channel of communication to help people convey these ideas and opinions to the public. In my graduate study, I realized that design should not stop at just making good-looking things for the audience to appreciate. Design can be functional and a multi-level communication practice to help people solve problems in life and bring a better experience.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

One of the projects that impressed me was my internship program. At that time, I was informed on Friday that I needed to finish making a catalog immediately because customers would need them on Monday. So I only have 3 days. We need to simplify product information, edit product images, layout, and print. So there was little time for the designer, and a design leader who worked with me was traveling. I needed to finish it with other departments which I haven’t cooperated with before. This was the most urgent project I had ever done. At that time, the product manager and the sales team, and I had no rest the whole weekend. Everyone is very tired. We wanted to give up at times, but we all insisted on encouraging each other. We spent two days communicating and adjusting based on the suggestions of the team and completed the design of the product catalog. There were several versions with different prices. Then we immediately followed up on the printing, and I also made further detailed adjustments according to the printing. Through the efforts of the whole team, we completed the catalog in time and achieved good results. I believe this is also a test of the designer’s ability to cooperate with the difficult and adaptivity.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most valuable aspect of becoming a creative worker is to help customers convey their voices and solve problems. I have great enthusiasm for brand design and web design and development. I am highly motivated by the diversity and richness of ideas that each customer brings. I believe that there is a unique story behind each brand, and I very much hope to explore many different brand designs. I love to help different brands convey their voices and leave an unforgettable impression on users. I attach great importance to assisting customers in making designs that represent ideas and sounds. I also enjoy assisting brands in conveying their ideas and stories through design better, helping them attract more users and bring a better experience to users. For me, design should not focus only on making things look good but more on how to affect people’s lives and provide a better experience. This represents good and sustainable design, which is also my design goal.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.luiqieng.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qing-l-680322203/

Image Credits
Qing Lei Design