Zhuohan Shao
Zhuohan Shao is currently living in Shanghai, working as a freelance graphic designer. In 2016, he went to the UK for studies, where he pursued a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at the University for the Creative Arts, specializing in typography and illustration. Four of his poster designs were twice selected for the JAGDA International Student Poster Award. He graduated with first-class honours in 2019. Then he continued his studies in Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. During his second year at college, due to the global pandemic, he created the project “100 Graphic Design Diaries” at home, which won a Red Dot: Best of the Best in the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design in 2022.
After graduation, he worked as a full-time graphic designer at a media company and a design studio in Shanghai. He has officially been a freelance designer since September 2023.
Red Dot in an interview with Zhuohan Shao
You went to university in the UK and have since founded your own studio in Shanghai. What has shaped your personal style more: the culture in your homeland or your studies?
My design style gradually took shape the five years I spent as a student in the UK. At the beginning of my graphic design studies, I temporarily “forgot” about my own cultural attributes, especially during the three years of my undergraduate studies, where my design practice mainly focused on contemporary culture and history in the UK and Europe, including various forms such as type design, poster design and illustration. In this period, I was heavily influenced by Western design concepts and my work reflected this.
However, during my postgraduate studies, I began to refocus on the use of media and gradually rediscovered the “forgotten” cultural attributes. I started incorporating elements of Chinese culture into my designs and engaged in iterative thinking. I found that applying a mix of simplified Chinese and English in my work was effective.
In 2022, you were a Red Dot: Best of the Best award recipient. Did that inspire you in your work?
Upon learning that I had received a Red Dot Award, I was incredibly excited. This award doesn’t just represent recognition for my creative efforts; it also motivates me to keep moving forward. I firmly believe that all the hard work and every detail is worth it.
Now you’ve had your first experience as a member of the Red Dot jury. Did you enjoy the change of perspective?
This experience was very different to the process of simply taking in other designers’ works as an observer, which is what I’d done in the past. My perspective became much broader as a judge because I had to consider the innovation, application and impact of the designs. I’m very grateful for the support of my team members. Their insights during the judging phase helped me to hone my critical thinking skills.
When I was judging the Junior Award candidates, I initially considered aesthetic appeal and then focused to a greater extent on the impact of the design and its openness to inspire more possibilities. Sometimes I reverted back to my student mindset to reassess whether these designs were outstanding enough from a student’s perspective to deserve a Red Dot Design Award.
Typography and illustration are your specialist disciplines. What are the characteristics of a good typeface for you?
From my perspective, a good typeface needs to possess not only excellent communicative qualities, readability and uniqueness, but also the ability to convey emotional information to the audience in terms of its practical application.
What project are you working on right now?
This June I was commissioned by a former teacher of mine to design a new brand identity for an educational institution in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. It was a nostalgic experience for me because nine years ago, when I was just starting out in graphic design, she was the first person to guide me into this field. She also graduated from Central Saint Martins.
The entire logo design process went very smoothly, and I was full of energy. Every day I created one to three differently styled logo designs and shared them with the client. I truly enjoyed this burst of inspiration, and we finalised the design in about a week.
Although the logo design project is finished, we’re planning a long-term collaboration involving the design of posters, brochures, business cards and other printed materials in the future.