Young Designers Sparking Conversation: New Talent Annual 2022 Featured Submissions

Visual arts and design are ever-changing and highly innovative fields, and it is today’s young creatives that have presented some of the freshest and most inventive ideas to date. This week’s submissions from New Talent Annual 2022 highlight themes around community and authenticity. 

Xizhong Zhang, recent alumnus of the Maryland Institute College of Art, designed a thought-provoking and immersive poster (above) titled “The Complex Truths about Copying,” meant to open a discussion space about knockoffs, design appropriation, and plagiarism. Zhang explains the importance of discussing different points of view about copying because “copying violates the ethics of creativity and cheap fakes make it more difficult for designers to … make a living. But copying can make products more accessible to shoppers who cannot afford luxury goods … [and] also be a means for creative people to appropriate dominant corporate languages and transform their meaning.” The project is separated into two points of view: “copying is always wrong,” displayed in red, and “copying is sometimes okay,” using green. Zhang also used an array of sample images to give examples. At the end viewers can add their own points of view, making Zhang’s asymmetrical, bright and aesthetically “poppy” design interactive. The creative also combined his design with social media, prompting those in the design industry to contribute important points.

Hyupjung Lee, a student at the School of Visual Arts New York City and designer of “VITAMOM” (above) was inspired by the decrease in human interaction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wanted to provide an indirect experience of human interaction to people with a daily-use item, vitamin,” Lee explains. Designed with the concept of a post-it note containing a loving message from “mom,” the design presents an aesthetically pleasing product meant to provide health and affection to its customers. Lee’s culturally relevant design is not only simple and sleek but speaks to the larger issues of isolation and loneliness that many have been dealing with over the past year. 

If you’re a design student, submit your best work into our New Talent 2022 competition at graphis.com.