Siran (Shirley) Li - MADA NOW 2021 - Art, Design and Architecture

Hi, this is Shirley. I love to design with typography and illustration (especially bold colors and strokes). My studio work (Making Things Pubilc) is a web design for QIANMEN which is a business zone located in the southern center of Beijing. There are two areas involved in QIANMEN, the traditional zone (Dashilan) with lots of time-honored brands, and the modern zone (Beijing Fun) with modern brands. My design is to explore the similarity and difference in these two areas, and explore how they integrated with each other. The design focuses on two sections: Illustration and Status. Illustrations are signature crafts from these brands. Status is photos of steel objects in front of shops.

MTP-QIANMEN-landing page

QIANMEN, the name of the location is placed at the top left corner. In the centre of the landing page is a silhouette of traditional bungalows (a common house style in the old days that has been kept and rebuilt into modern shops). The question mark tells the brief introduction of the place and how to interact with the website. Click Illustration or Status, the page will navigate the user to each thematic page.

MTP-QIANMEN-navigating pages

Thematic pages of illustration and Status are divided into the time-honored and modern brand sections. The two sections are placed on either side of the hero image of the bunglows, indicating a different but harmonious combination.

MTP-QIANMEN-navigating pages

Scrolling down from the thematic pages, are the lists of brands. For the illustration page, the shop names are placed over the illustrations, and while the mouse is hovering over the illustration, an image of the shop will pop out. The status page focusing on showing the images of the shops, and illustration icons are placed next the images. This provides the user with two ways to start knowing the place.

MTP-QIANMEN-detailed pages

After clicking the icon, the web navigates to a detailed page. In the detailed pages, photos with higher resolution will be shown, and text telling the stories of the shops and their crafts.

SPICE-publication design

This publication, SPICE, is designed for those who love cooking (entry/middle level cooks) and want to get inspiration for differnet flavors by experimenting with spices.The contents is categorized by flavours. Readers can read the contents page and use the flavour wheel to find a flavor and spice. However, readers could also look up and find the flavors quickly by just flipping the book (there is a color block on the top right of each page indicating the flavor of that spice).

SPICE-context

The book could be published by a supermarket or spice company that aim to increase the purchase of spices. Placed next to the spice shelf, customers could buy one or could get one for free if they buy spice.