We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danyang Ma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danyang below.

Danyang, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

The design industry is booming with fast-spreading small media, including NFTs, memes, stories, short videos, etc. Within the context of mobile-first Internet culture, it has become increasingly common for non-professionals to create a remixed design piece and then endow layers of meaning to it.

In the digital era, technology enables creative remixes of visuals and encourages new ways of dialogical interpretation and conversation. Initially, “design” was authored by professionals in the creative capacity, which predominantly served only those with access to these professions, thereby making only an exclusive audience eligible to engage with the creation.

However, design is now generated from within the non-professional public due to the rapid transmitting power of social media, technology, and accessible creation tools. Nowadays, a creator collects and reflects specific content and delivers this information through their craft-packaged design, which, in turn, circulates within the public, providing more fodder to the current piece of creation. This trend can achieve more emotional fluctuation in the audience, engaging a conversation between the audience and the design, making a design more dynamic and versatile.

Danyang, 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?

I’m a graphic designer from Beijing and based in New York. My work mainly includes branding, typography, packaging, social design, and basic 3D rendering. 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 feels like a multi-disciplinary artist painting as much as possible on a delicate canvas. And you’re creating visuals and incubating business ideas that contribute to the brands simultaneously.

Painting has been my passion since childhood. I started using Photoshop in middle school 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. So, I decided to study design in undergrad and grad school and continued the practice afterward.

I’m currently working as a freelance Designer. My clients range from in-house teams like Pinterest Academy and Adobe Express to design agencies like &Walsh and Gretel. I have attended Pratt Institute and Tongji University for Communications Design.

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, retail, and media apps—clients including KIKI World, VOODOO House, New News, etc.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

With the experience of working in a female-founded and driven design agency, I was influenced a lot by their brilliant communicational value showcased in the practice of design. It offers designers a new aspect of design methodology and application — making the design raise relief, recognition, intimacy, otherness, self-awareness, self-satisfaction, and many other emotional effects, along with a touch of humor.

Therefore, I aim to adapt this value to my own creative journey and develop visual languages that help enrich dialogical communication among designers, clients, and audiences, provoking a dynamic conversation. Designers can always jump out of the premise of visuals and design itself. A successful design can possess the strongest and richest positive response of collective cultural and social Identities in the existing situation.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The design philosophy conveyed in the book Designing Design by Hara Kenya has significantly impacted me.

The book indicates that a good design always follows the pattern of nature, making the form pure and easy. The product itself shall be reasonable and intuitive, dedicated to details, aesthetics, and precision. Furthermore, there is a purpose behind all good design, with an innovative approach embedded in long-term visions.
The book’s implicit, flexible, and delightful touch has influenced my design preference. I like the philosophy of elevating art through blankness, balancing emptiness and completeness, and leaving a sense of breath. I am also a thinking-and-feeling combined designer who believes every design piece is there for aesthetic needs and a greater purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://danyangma.com
• Instagram: @daniemonnn
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danyang-ma-358b6317a/

Image Credits

Danyang Ma