take your shoes off!

Exhibition catalogue for the Shoes Off Collective, a pan asian student group at OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario.This publication includes work from their exhibitions, “Navigating Identity in the Asian Diaspora” and “Blueprint for a Collective Home”.

skin maps

Kinetic type design for “skin maps”, an experimental short film by interdisciplinary artist Jasmine Liaw.

Lucky

A print publication that focuses on the East-Asian Diaspora and its connections to family, language, food, and safe space. Featuring personal stories, articles, poems, and original artwork.

mei anima

Logotype design for Canadian Soul/Indie band, mei anima.

tantrum

Branding proposal for tantrum tan house.

Navigating Identity in the Asian Diaspora Exhibition Posters

Poster for the Shoes of Collective’s first exhibition, “Navigating Identity in the Asian Diaspora”. Deliverables include a digital (square) and physical (11” x 17”) version of the exhibition poster, and a physical poster (36” x 24”) for the artist statement.

You’re looking for us?

Created using news articles, social media posts, photos, and type, this map addresses the rise of Asian Hate during the height of the pandemic. The work is a visual response to the question: How have anti-Asian hate crimes affected the lives and daily routines of Asian Americans living in New York City?

This piece is inspired by the fear and worries that myself, my family, and the Asian American community have been forced to carry throughout the pandemic. My grandparents have lived in the heart of New York's Chinatown for well over 50 years. With the recent rise in hate crimes, their once-friendly neighbourhood became a place of fear. My grandparents no longer use the subway, and they do not walk alone at night. My grandmother often speaks of the “old days,” when people were much more friendly, and how much has changed since then.

The patterns on the map create an awareness of these spaces now marked by danger. In this piece, the names of iconic New York neighbourhoods, like Soho, Time Square, and Flushing, are replaced with the names of victims of these hate crimes, like Christina Yuna Lee, Michelle Alyssa Go, and GuiYing Ma. The map is a guide to the places that Asian Americans are now forced to avoid.

Rigorous scanning and overlapping depict the evolution of the effects of this violence on the Asian American residents of New York, who have moved from shock, to fear, to retaliation, to adaptation. Its impacts will forever be ingrained in Asian American history.

Featured in the 2023 publication 'The Third Space' by the University of Toronto Diaspora and Transnational Studies Union (DTSU).

Look Up!, 2023

Intaglio print
4” x 6”

To my guard, 2022

Screenprint

Protectors of space and featured in pairs as female and male, Foo Dogs, or Guardian Lions, are a symbol of prosperity, success, and guardianship. Their journey to the west has them most commonly featured in Chinatown’s, restaurants, and homes across America.

The male is depicted through black outlines that emphasise chiselled details in structure and facial features. The bold lines correlate to the male's association with Yang (in Yin and Yang): the hard, the active, the rough, the restless. The female is depicted through the green silhouette that focuses on overall shape and material. The jade-like depiction speaks to the female’s association with Yin (in Yin and Yang): the soft, the passive, the smooth, the content.

PHOEBE CHEN (:P) take your shoes off!skin mapsLuckymei animatantrum Navigating Identity in the Asian Diaspora Exhibition PostersYou’re looking for us?Look Up!To my guard Instagram Contact

ABOUT Phoebe Chen is a Graphic Designer based in Toronto, Canada.

PHOEBE CHEN (:P)

take your shoes off!
skin maps
Lucky
mei anima
tantrum
Navigating Identity in the Asian Diaspora Exhibition Posters
You’re looking for us?
Look Up!
To my guard

Instagram
Contact

ABOUT

Phoebe Chen is a Graphic Designer based in Toronto, Canada.