background
- She joined us in her second year at a university in Beijing outside China’s 985 and 211 university groups.
- I want to apply for a major in Visual Communication, but the foundation is relatively weak at first.
- The domestic design education system is very different from Western education. The design projects done in freshman and sophomore years are biased towards “commercial operations”, and the use of software and critical thinking are relatively insufficient.
Admission results
- Pratt Institute (Pratt Institute of the Arts)
- California College of the Arts (CCA) — USD $20,000 scholarship
- Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) — USD $25,000 scholarship
- Bournemouth University (University of Bournemouth)
- Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) — USD $15,530 scholarship
Highlights and growth
- From "commercial thinking” to "artistic creative thinking“: she used to put ”market selling points" first. Through a large number of case studies and research, she gradually realized that Western colleges and universities value conceptual depth and social value more.
- Simultaneous improvement of software and critical thinking: In addition to focusing on strengthening tools such as C4D and Figma, she also practiced “disassembly and reorganization” of problems in the project, and learned to examine the meaning of design with multi-angle thinking.
- Balance her studies with portfolio creation: After her sophomore year, she used her spare time to systematically study visual communication theory and formal composition. Her works not only ensured commercial practicality, but also injected richer artistic elements.
Tutor's comments
I clearly remember the first time I discussed the work with Liu, she kept mentioning ‘How can this design sell well’. When I asked her if she had ever thought about the social insights or humanistic care behind the design, she was a little confused. After many discussions and exercises, she only talked about ‘selling points’ from the beginning, to gradually being able to tell me about her thinking about color language and how to use visual communication techniques to guide the audience's emotions.
The most impressive thing for me was that she added thinking about the reuse of urban waste to her works, combining commercial packaging design with environmental protection concepts, showing new design possibilities. This transformation was not achieved overnight, but the result of her repeated practice and active inspiration. Her growth trajectory proves that when you are willing to open up and understand the deep value behind design, you can make a qualitative leap in a short period of time.