Qian (26) & Her Creative Coming of Age
I caught up with Xin Qian (or Qian as we call her) one day in early March for an excursion out to the Tiong Bahru neighbourhood and a quick pop into Aeae Furniture for their last community market at their 25 Depot Lane location.
I had a go on the skateboard, I think I prefer solid ground.
Since getting acquainted almost 3 years ago, Qian and I have bonded over a love for Korean indie music, books, and most importantly, an unyielding excitement for life. Something I’ll always appreciate about her. And here’s a peek at her creative practice.
Qian’s snaps of her desk and the Fellow office.
“I’m currently a designer at Fellow. Centring our work on art, culture, and heritage, we use design as a tool to better understand the relationship with our environment — be it physical, digital or graphic. As a studio, we love to explore narratives and build experiences that connect with people and this can be seen in our daily design practice.” (A/N: Keep up to date with studio life at Fellow here)
Work for Fellow — Flight to Nowhere and for Amy Lee.
“On the side, I’ve been working as a freelance graphic designer for LA-based transformative life coach and digital content creator, Amy Lee (Youtube, Instagram) for over a year now. We design graphics with the intention of empowering the next generation to break intergenerational cycles and elevate global consciousness of various topics.”
“I don’t have a favourite medium but I find myself being drawn to everything visual, anything that provokes me. Could be a sexy snippet of motion graphic, album cover, or even a piece of furniture!”
“These are materials passed down from my dad — he studied graphic design when he was young!”
“I studied design at both Singapore Polytechnic (Viscomm) then LASALLE College of Arts, which naturally led to jobs in graphic design upon graduation. Viscomm was actually my 6th choice when I applied in 2013 haha but that’s how my design journey began.”
“The reason I even had Viscomm as one of my choices was due to my interest in TVCs, especially the emotional ones. I had developed an interest in advertising because I wanted to evoke the same emotions in others as the ones I had after consuming such 15 seconds shorts. It was intriguing to me.”
Inside the Fellow office
“Unlike a lot of people, I never knew what I wanted to do. The first couple of years in design for me were painful, I had no idea what I was doing nor why I was there. Everyone around me, lecturers and myself included, thought I wasn’t cut out for it. But in my third and final year of Poly, I found my own rhythm along with a good support system and I started to want to do well. I headed for LASALLE with dreams of getting into prestigious ad agencies and with that drive began receiving a fair share of good feedback from my peers and lecturers on my work.”
“After 6 years, I’ve since let advertising go. After countless competitive briefs and receiving internship opportunities at agencies, my gut told me it’d always be a struggle. But I still have design.”
Self-initiated work
“I don’t think I have ever gotten over the feeling that I’m not good enough. It is the constant battle with the inner voices in our heads, but I try to condition myself that design is all about practice and I try to not compare myself with others.”
“2 years ago, I started a self-initiated series to practise my skills with motion and typographic layout. After Effects at the time (and still) scared the living daylights out of me and I didn’t want to stay intimidated. Although there remains so much to be learned, I’m glad I took that first step. Quoting one of my favourite local podcasts,
The brain hates discomfort and is constantly seeking pleasure because it’s trying to protect us. Feel fear? Lean in. This is a signal for growth.
Self-initiated work
“I’m a big believer of creating your own opportunities. If you don’t, who will? And that’s how I landed the opportunity to work with Amy. I applied for the role simply because I wanted it for myself.”
“There is plenty I would tell my past self or budding creatives like myself:
A thought is not a fact
You should really get more sleep
Get out of the house and spend more time in nature
Staring at the screen all day will not make your design any better
Be as uncomfortable as possible, for discomfort is growth”
“If you never try, the answer will always be no.”
“What helps my stamina as a designer is having a supportive group of friends who always believe in the things I do. It’s also important to take regular breaks. I get inspired simply by consuming interviews of designers I look up to and learning about what lights them up. I get fuelled to one day be of their calibre. I also strongly recommend the book <Steal Like an Artist — Austin Kleon> to all creatives.”
“I feel like being on a creative journey never gets easier. But in hindsight, all the struggles have made who I am today. As cliche as it sounds, there really are no ‘failures’ in life, only valuable lessons. If I’m striving to be better than I was yesterday, that’s enough for me.”
Qian’s snap observing her liking for retrospective material.
“This year, I do hope to do more motion work and perhaps venture into web design. I’m also excited to put out more work to fulfil my own creative curiosities and not so much to impress anyone else.”
Work for Amy Lee.
“Leaving everyone with some of my favourite content currently (A/N: at the time of writing)
Music: Bye-bye Darling — Børns (for its melancholy and the feels when the first chorus hits!)
Youtube Channel: Soft White Underbelly (a photographer’s humanising docu-series about those frowned upon by society)”
Silkscreens at the Fellow office and brewing her morning coffee.
“Creativity to me is like eating: you consume (input), you digest, you take a dump (output) and feel relieved after.”
