The Ethics of Design with Aiqi Zhang

Aiqi Zhang is an award-winning multidisciplinary designer and senior designer at Mother LA. Her practice moves between graphic, spatial, and narrative forms, exploring how ideas can shift across mediums, scales, and contexts while maintaining a distinct visual point of view.

Her work has been recognised by the ADC Awards, TDC, Communication Arts, Graphis, and the Creative Communication Awards. She contributed as a designer to Apple’s ‘Fuzzy Feelings’ at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.

Alongside client work, she pursues independent typographic and material experiments, exploring how graphic design can move beyond two-dimensional formats into broader cultural and spatial experiences.

Aiqi sat down with LBB to discuss how he first fell into the world of design, typography and the history behind it as well as the most challenging parts of accessible design.

LBB> Tell us about your current role and design specialism(s)?

Aiqi> I am currently a senior designer at Mother LA, working across brand identity, campaign systems, typography, and visual storytelling. My focus is on translating ideas into clear, distinctive, and culturally relevant visual systems across different mediums and formats, with an emphasis on both design and art direction.

LBB> What drew you to design in the first place, and how has your design career evolved?

Aiqi> What first drew me to graphic design was its ability to make invisible things visible. I was interested in how an idea, a feeling, or a cultural reference could be translated into visual form through research, typography, and an understanding of scale and media.

As my career has evolved, that interest has become more strategic. I now think a lot about how to translate strategy into concepts and then turn those concepts into visual systems that can live across campaigns, identities, and different formats.

LBB> What aspects of design do you get really nerdy about personally?

Aiqi> Typography, for sure. I can spend hours and hours in front of my computer just trying to fix one piece of kerning, adjust one curve, or move one anchor point until it finally feels right. It sounds tiny, but those details really change how a typeface or a typographic design piece feels.

There are so many people in the type world who are ‘nerdy’ in the best way, with such deep knowledge of type history, printing technology, and the stories behind certain letterforms. I really admire that. I’ll dig into references, talk to creative people, or even reach out to collectors just to get closer to the truth of where something came from.

For me, typography is not only about making the form look right. It is also about understanding the layers behind it, why certain decisions were made, and carrying that history forward in a thoughtful way.

LBB> There are so many new design tools out – what tools do you like to use and why?

Aiqi> Of course, there are new tools now that can make the process more efficient and open up new ways of thinking. I still care a lot about traditional methods, such as printing, paper texture, physical mock-ups, and different materials. At the same time, I’m always open to learning new tools that can help bring more interactive ideas to life. I think great work often happens when different tools and media are used together, rather than choosing one side.

At the end of the day, tools are still tools. What matters is knowing how and when to use them and understanding what medium the idea needs to live in. The tools we use should constantly change depending on the brief and the needs of the project.

For me, it is less about chasing the newest tool and more about building the right relationship between the idea, the medium, and the process.

LBB> Design Thinking – thoughts?

Aiqi> I think the boundaries of graphic design have always been blurry, and that is what makes it interesting. Design does not only come from one discipline or one category. It can be influenced by architecture, fashion, film, technology, culture, material, writing, or even small things we notice in everyday life.

For me, design thinking is about being open to those connections. It is less about defining exactly what kind of designer you are and more about understanding how different ways of thinking can support each other. A visual idea can come from research, a physical material, a cultural reference, a conversation, or a completely different field. The important part is knowing how to translate those influences into something clear, meaningful, and useful.

LBB> What are the most persistent misconceptions about your particular design specialism that you see across the advertising and marketing landscape?

Aiqi> One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that design is something to bring in near the end, once the idea is already formed. In advertising and marketing, design can sometimes be treated as the final layer that makes something look finished, when in fact designers can contribute much earlier in the process.

Designers and art directors often start from slightly different ways of thinking, and that difference can be very valuable for a team. When designers are involved from the beginning, they can help shape the visual direction, build an overview of how the idea might live across different media, and identify possibilities that may not appear if design only comes in at the execution stage.

For me, the earlier a designer understands the strategy, the brief, and the creative ambition of a project, the more meaningful their contribution can be.

LBB> Accessible design is an increasingly prominent topic – from your experience, what are the most challenging facets of accessible design? And what does best practice in accessible design in your particular design specialism look like?

Aiqi> From my experience, one of the most challenging parts of accessible design is making something clear without losing its visual character. In brand identity, typography, and campaign systems, accessibility has to work together with the personality of the design.

Best practice usually starts early. It means thinking about contrast, type size, hierarchy, motion, and information structure before the design is fully developed. On digital projects, it also means considering responsive layouts, alt text, screen readers, and different ways people may move through a site or experience. I also think brand guidelines should clearly show what not to do, such as colour combinations, type sizes, or layouts that may create accessibility issues. That way, accessibility continues to be considered when the client uses the system later on.

LBB> What design controversies or challenges do you find trickiest to navigate, or do you find yourself thinking about most frequently?

Aiqi> One challenge I think about a lot is the tension between timelessness and cultural relevance. In branding, there are elements that need to live in the world for a long time. A strong identity needs consistency, recognition, and a point of view that is not too dependent on a passing trend.

Advertising works a little differently. A campaign often needs to respond to what people are paying attention to now, whether that is a cultural moment, a behaviour, a platform, or a shift in how people are feeling. For me, the tricky part is understanding what should stay steady and what should be more responsive. That is where strategy becomes really important.

Good design is not simply timeless or trendy. It knows which parts of the system should last and which parts can move with the moment.

LBB> How do you think about the ethics of design?

Aiqi> I think about the ethics of design through responsibility. Every design decision shapes how people understand information, feel about a brand, or move through an experience. In advertising, this feels especially important because the work can travel very far and reach many different audiences.

For me, ethics is connected to clarity, honesty, accessibility, and cultural context. I’ve seen how important it is to review work carefully, especially when it involves different communities, languages, symbols, or cultural references. A visual idea can be powerful, but it also needs to be considered from more than one perspective. Good design should be visually strong, but it should also be thoughtful about what it communicates and who it may affect.

LBB> What are some of your favourite examples of creative design solutions that inspire you?

Aiqi> The creative design solutions that inspire me most are the ones where the medium becomes part of the idea. I love seeing a billboard use scale and distance in a smart way, a printed piece use paper texture or a production method to add meaning, or a digital experience use interaction as part of the storytelling.

I’m also inspired by typographic solutions where type does more than carry words. Sometimes a type system can create a tone, a rhythm, or a whole visual world around an idea.

For me, the strongest examples are usually the ones that feel very simple at first, but when you look closer, every decision is connected to the concept, the medium, and the way people experience it.

LBB> Which design projects throughout your career have been the most satisfying to work on and why?

Aiqi> The projects I’m most proud of are often the ones where design takes a less traditional route and uses different media, materials, and formats to build a richer visual language.

One of them is Apple’s ‘Fuzzy Feelings,’ which I worked on during my time at TBWA\Media Arts Lab. For that project, the design system was deeply tied to the handmade felt world of the film. We spent countless hours developing typography and letterforms that felt like they belonged to that material world, including two custom typefaces that could live across the film and its wider campaign system. I loved that the work still felt connected to Apple’s aesthetic, while expanding the visual language into something softer, more tactile, and more emotionally specific to the story. It was also a strong example of how design can play a larger role in advertising, helping to shape the emotional language, narrative world, and overall memory of the work.

Another project is the type specimen for Credence, a display typeface I designed. I wanted the specimen to go beyond a traditional type poster that simply shows letters on a page. The typeface was rooted in historical references and the quiet restraint of classical letterforms, and I extended that thinking into the fleurons, composition, and overall structure of the piece. I also pushed the specimen beyond the page by translating it into a woven blanket, where the layout had to work through material, texture, and scale. Part of the process involved looking closely at historical materials and speaking with people who have deep knowledge of type and printing history, so I could get closer to the context behind the forms. The piece became a way to express not only how the typeface looks but also where it comes from, how it is constructed, and how it should feel.

More recently, at Mother LA, I have been working on the identity for MA·LA, Mother’s Asian Employee Resource Group. I’m leading the creative direction of the project, from the earliest concept stage through the visual system and collaborative merchandise. That has given me the opportunity to shape the visual language from the beginning and work closely with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. It feels personal but also connected to a larger community, which makes the process very meaningful to me.

LBB> What's going on at the moment in design that's getting you particularly excited?

Aiqi> What gets me excited right now is seeing how bold a lot of commercial work has become. I recently finished voting for the Emmy Awards as a member of the Commercials Peer Group, and looking through the work made me feel that many brands and creative teams are becoming more willing to take real risks.

That boldness can show up in different ways. Sometimes it is in the way something is produced or filmed, and sometimes it is in how a single medium or visual language is pushed much further than expected. What excites me is when a strong idea is not watered down, and when the client is willing to support something that feels brave, specific, and a little unexpected. That kind of trust can make the work feel much more memorable and alive.

LBB> Thinking of people at the beginning of their career, what advice would you give them for navigating this constantly changing field?

Aiqi> My advice would be to stay curious and stay hungry, while also learning how to focus. When you first enter the field, it is easy to feel overwhelmed because there are so many tools, references, opinions, and directions happening at once. Being able to identify what really matters, prioritise the right parts of a project, and understand where to focus your energy is very important.

I also think learning how to build a clear presentation deck is just as important as making the work. It teaches you how to simplify your thinking, decide what needs to be shown, explain why certain decisions were made, and bring the client along with the idea. Learn how to understand a brief, ask better questions, research deeply, and think about how an idea can live across different media. Tools will keep changing, but the ability to connect strategy, culture, craft, and visual form will always be valuable.