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

Hi Xianxi, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is HIPOND, which is also my current full-time work and a project that has truly come to life. HIPOND began with a clear purpose: to support international students and young professionals as they move into a new place, offering “move-in packages” that include essentials for daily life, along with a platform for community and connection.

What makes this project meaningful is its scope—I lead not only the mobile UI/UX design, but also the web and Shopify storefront, ensuring that the online experience is smooth, trustworthy, and consistent. Beyond the screen, I am also responsible for the offline side of design, from event materials and packaging to physical merchandise and brand activations. That combination of digital and physical design is something I deeply enjoy: it allows me to tell a complete story across mediums, where every touchpoint reinforces the same identity and feeling.

For me, HIPOND is more than just a design project. As someone who once arrived in the U.S. alone, I understand how difficult it can be to settle into a new life. Being able to create a platform and brand that eases that transition is my way of transforming my own experience into something tangible for others. It’s meaningful because it connects design with life—it is lived, used, and shared.

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.

I came to the U.S. from China when I was seventeen, carrying a suitcase and a lot of uncertainty. At first, I followed the path my family imagined and studied biology. But an art class I took by chance opened a different world to me—a world where I could lose track of time, where ideas could take shape in color, form, and story. That was when I knew design was the language I wanted to speak.

Over the years, I’ve allowed this curiosity to guide me—through my studies in Studio Art and later in design at Pratt Institute, and now in my work as both a UI/UX designer and a visual designer. My work stretches across mediums: I create mobile apps, websites, and Shopify storefronts, but I also shape the offline side of design—packaging, event materials, and physical objects that people can hold in their hands. My current project, HIPOND, is especially meaningful because it helps students and young professionals feel at home when they first arrive in a new place. It’s a platform, a brand, and a community, built out of both pixels and paper.

What I offer is not just design services, but a way of seeing: I treat design as a form of translation, a bridge between cultures, between ideas and reality, between uncertainty and belonging. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to receive recognition from awards such as the French Design Award, the London Design Award, C2A, and IDA, but what I’m most proud of is seeing a project move from imagination into people’s daily lives.

If there is something I want readers to take away, it’s that my work is rooted in empathy and persistence. I design with the hope that what I create can bring clarity, comfort, or even just a small moment of beauty into someone’s life.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part of being a creative is seeing how something that began as a quiet thought or a sketch can eventually touch another person’s life. Design and art are not just about making things beautiful—they are about creating moments of connection, clarity, or comfort.

I love that my work can travel farther than I can—that a digital interface might ease someone’s daily task, or a piece of packaging might make a stranger feel a little more at home. The reward is not in recognition, but in knowing that what I create can carry a small piece of empathy into the world.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

At the heart of my creative journey is a very simple mission: to use design as a way of building bridges. Having grown up in one culture and built my career in another, I’ve always felt the tension—and the beauty—of translation. For me, design is another form of translation: it turns complexity into clarity, uncertainty into belonging, and ideas into something people can actually touch or use.

I’m driven by the belief that design should not only look good, but also make life easier, warmer, and more connected. That’s why I care about projects that exist both online and offline—apps, websites, and digital platforms, but also packaging, events, and tangible objects that accompany people in their daily lives.

My mission is less about chasing trends and more about creating work with persistence and empathy. If what I design can bring someone a moment of comfort, a sense of home, or simply a small piece of beauty in the everyday, then I feel I am on the right path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.xianxiliao.design/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xianxi-liao/