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

Alright, Brax thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

For all the projects I’ve done, I always start with ideation/brainstorm. This is a technique I’ve learned in college that can help me dig out potential as many as possible for every projects. During the process of design, there is always a moment that a great idea emerge and makes me feel motivate. However, this is usually the point that I will force myself to stop and look through all the ideas I’ve sketched. The reason behind this step is that an idea sounds exciting to me doesn’t mean it’s the best solution. As a product designer, my job is to find the best solution for my user’s painpoint instead of develop my personal interests. Back in 2020, I was doing a student project for a knife brand called Benchmade. During the early process, I came up with a finger knife idea that I like a lot. I was very excited when I present this idea to my classmates and insturctor. However, they were not as excited as I did after my presentation. My instructor asked me to come up with at least 20 more ideas next week. Eventualy I found a great solution to my project and won two awards with this project. I prefer using designer as my title instead of artist, because what I’m passionate about is to find the solution to my project rather than express myself in an artistic way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Yifan “Brax” Li. I grow up in Nanjing, China. I’m currently a student of ArtCenter college of design. My major is product design. I went to ArtCenter at 2019 spring. I choose to learn product design base on the idea of “making the world a better place”. I treat industrial design as a creative tool to help everyone in different ways. However, since 2021 I started to foucus on concept design which is mainly about creating concept for films, animation and video games. I’ve finished an internship at The Neuland Studio as a visual development artist in fall 2023. I grown up with films and animations and I learned many principles of life from these movies. I believe that film is not just an way of entertaining but also a great media to convey ideas. I become a person with love, kind and passion because I choose to believe the idea from the movies I watched. That’s why I want to do concept design now because I believe this is the way I can contribute my idea of good to the world.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’m proud to say that all the projects I’ve done are for the mission of creating a better world. Although I started my career as a product designer, the passion for animations and films never disapper in my mind. The first time I saw the animation “Prince of Egypt” was 2005, when I was 5. That was the first time I feel the power of “believe”. I had no doubts about the content of the movies I’d seen, even if they were just naive ideas. But there is no denying that these thoughts have helped me become a kinder person. When I realized that all my good qualities had been influenced by the movies I’d seen, I felt more inspired than ever. This is the moment I shift my career path from product design to concept design. I dream about maybe one day I will create a film of my own, and even only one audience start to believe in idea of good I’ve convey, this world will have one more chance to become better. This is the motivation and the mission of my creative journey.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being creative helps me to keep a open mind to everything in my life. To me, creativity is not a gift but a skill that everyone can learn. I was not as creative as I’m now couple years ago, I was trained to be creative during my education journey. During my design process, some crazy and stupid ideas will appear all the time. One of my instructor used to tell me that there is no crazy or stupid idea, only genuis idea that no one haven’t figure out how to make it work yet. So I stop give up my “stupid” ideas easily which I used to do, and start to look at these ideas from different perpective. Being creative is actually help me to solve any problem in my life not just in my design process. It’s an mindset that helps to turn anything into an oppurtunity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.braxlidesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brax_li_17/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brax-li-799109251/

Image Credits
Yifan “Brax” Li