Tell us about where you studied and some of your highlights and favourite lecturers.

I studied at Holland College in Prince Edward Island, Canada, exactly 12,179 km from where I was born (yes, I actually checked). The program was only two years, but the intensity of the projects really pushed me to grow fast. It was the right mix of technical skills and developing my own style.

My instructors, Mike and April, were both incredibly supportive, honestly, just solid, nice people. The biggest highlight for me wasn’t a single project but the people I met. I learned something from each of them, whether they knew it or not.

Other than the program, I basically treated online courses like an endless buffet. I’m a heavy Domestika user, and I try to attend as many workshops and creative events as possible—like the DesignThinkers Conference by RGD and online sessions from Letterform Archive. Those experiences kept me inspired.

What weird and wonderful things are you obsessed with right now that inspires your creative work?

1. Jazz culture—I’m deep into bossa nova, jazz house, and anything with a messy, spontaneous flow. There’s something about jazz that reminds me of the best kind of design—improvised but somehow still perfect.
2. Tilda Swinton—Her work feels like an art installation in motion. Films like The Human Voice, Caprice, Suspiria, and Orlando explore identity, transformation, and surreal aesthetics in such a bold way. She has this ability to shift between characters and personas, blurring the lines between reality and performance, which really inspires how I think about storytelling and visual design.
3. Thai typography—I don’t actually speak Thai, but I’ve been obsessed with the letterforms. They’re intricate, fluid, and have this visual rhythm that feels almost musical. Also, attempting to learn it has made me respect type designers on a whole new level.

Favourite travel destinations that inspire you?

1. Montreal, Canada – It feels like a city designed by artists for artists. There’s this perfect mix of history, weirdness, and creative energy, with events and art happenings around every corner.
2. Tainan, Taiwan – The colors, signage, and typography make it feel like stepping into a living design reference book. It’s rich in culture and traditional handicrafts, ceramics, bamboo crafts, paper arts. Also, I will never emotionally recover from how good the food is.
3. Abu Dhabi, UAE – The architecture, the desert landscapes, the temples—everything feels so different from anywhere I’ve ever lived. Every corner inspires me, from the shapes of the buildings to the traditional clothing, music, dance, and the beautiful letterforms of Arabic script.

Tell us about your tools / what tech, programs, equipment and environment do you do your best work in?

Just my laptop and headphones. I’ve worked on planes, in forests, by the port… yes, even on the toilet (no judgment, please). As long as I’ve got music and a screen, I can get things done. But when a project needs that human touch, I go full analog. Printers, scanners, paint, ink, and my collection of weird, old, tainted paper, I hoard anything with texture and history. There’s something about working with physical materials that digital tools just can’t replicate.

Which 3 creatives do you look up to and why?

I couldn’t pick just three, there’s too much amazing work out there!

1. Annie Atkins – She’s the reason I realized graphic design for film was even a thing. I took her Domestika course when I was still in school, and it was a game-changer for my first film industry job. Art department resources were pretty limited on the island, so that course filled in some major gaps (and I got my first production designer job after that—woo-hoo!). I also saw her speak at DesignThinkers Toronto 2024 and got my book signed. Definitely a pinch-me moment.
2. Wang Zhihong – His approach to typography is just incredible. He blends cultural and commercial design so seamlessly, and his deconstruction of letterforms, especially across different languages, blows me away. I could stare at his work forever, and I’m always learning something new from it. (https://wangzhihong.com/)
3. Julio Torres – I love how he explores identity through surrealism, humor, and visual aesthetics. Shows like Fantasmas and his film Problemista feel like carefully designed visual experiences, where every little detail matters. (He’s also the guy behind SNL’s viral “Papyrus” sketch.) His humor just hits, it's funny, but it also says something deeper, and it’s all wrapped in this beautifully aesthetic package.
4. Lemi Ghariokwu – He designed a lot of Fela Kuti’s album covers, and the visuals are just as reflective and powerful as Fela’s music. His work is bold, expressive, and deeply connected to cultural identity, which I find incredibly inspiring.

What are your biggest hopes and dreams for 2025, both for the world and your career?

For the world, I just hope people can be a little kinder and more willing to really listen to each other. It feels like chaos is everywhere right now, but I’d like to believe we’re capable of better. It’s 2025—we’ve got AI and all this advanced tech, so I’m pretty sure we’re capable of doing better than what we’re doing right now.

For myself, I hope I can keep finding some structure in my own chaos through art and design. I’m less focused on traditional career paths, and I don’t see myself in a big design firm or corporate environment. I’d rather keep working on cultural projects and meaningful work that inspires me. And if I can make enough to keep traveling and exploring, that’s really all I need.

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