Guizhou Topbanana.x Technology

Xian Song, a Chinese national born in 1980s, is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, packaging designer and writer. She conveys heart-warming creative ideas with interesting design and communicates with the world in a principled manner. She is also the manager of Topbanana.x studio, and the scope of business includes, among others, brand planning, graphic design, packaging design, project promotion, activity planning and design.

Interview with Xian Song, Guizhou Topbanana.x Technology

Red Dot: What does design mean to you?
Xian Song: At this stage, I recognise design as a way for me to communicate with the world. I can project the reality in life and imagination into my design, to make my creation and expression more interesting.

How would you define good communication design?
What we need is to break the shackles of tradition and to reconnect inspirations of fantasy with real life. Once we shed stereotypes and limitation of design to simplify it, we will find a world with more freedom.

What intention do you pursue with your award-winning work?
In my work I want to express an idea of majority. Many people consider “majority” as ordinariness and conformity. But I think that this is not the only meaning. It is free, undefined and provides infinite possibilities – without a standard answer.

Was your award-winning work inspired by current social issues?
If there is any social problem that inspired my work, I think it may be the one about growth. Our whole life comes with the topic of growth. Sometimes we live a life already planned and grow up under school rules or adults’ expectations. The imagination of fantasy and free expressions are limited. When growing into manhood or womanhood, we rejoice that we can realise how big the world is and how vast our life is. I hope that all those adults who once were children have a possibility of growing up to become individuals the way they like.

Which target group would you like to address with your award-winning work?
I hope that this work can make the young population who yearns for freedom and beauty naturally re-establish an interesting connection with the world and rediscover their own emotion.