JANE ZHANG


ABOUT ME

I’m a Communication Design major at Washington University in St. Louis who is also pursuing minors in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Science. In my work, I strive to explore a diverse range of narratives, perspectives, and approaches. My favorite part of the design process is the iteration stage, especially the moment where I finally arrive at the version that addresses everything I’ve been trying to communicate.

Recently, I’ve been interested in the nuances of multilingual typography and how the characteristics of different languages’ letterforms can be leveraged to enhance a concept across multiple linguistic demographics. Outside of my work, I love stories in any form, whether that means books, movies, or music. Lately, I’ve been watching Summertime Rendering and listening to Jack Stauber. 

Feel free to reach out for work or friendship, and check out more of my work below!

HOME / CLIENT WORK / ARCHIVE


   

THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR & THE LABOR OF YOUR LOVE


The objective of this project was to design a container of items to represent a memory or an event from your past. I chose to create a bilingual boxed set representing fruit-cutting as my parents’ love language. Each fruit corresponds to a different emotion or intention, and the set explores the barriers in communication regarding this form of love language as well.




BACKGROUND


In part due to language barriers and also due to cultural differences, it’s uncommon for parents in many Asian American families to verbally express their emotions, especially to their children. This was my experience growing up as well; however, I noticed that my parents often did express their emotions in their actions rather than through their words, especially in the ways they cut fruit for me and my sibling. I decided to select five fruits based on what I perceived to be the emotions and intentions of my parents in serving each fruit, and curated them in a set reminiscent of a dessert box (a luxury for my parents growing up due to their economic conditions) to show how precious something as mundane as fruit can be in my family.


COVER SLEEVE


The cover sleeve was constructed with vellum to create a sense of haziness, representing the vague impression of a memory. The Chinese title alludes to the idea of five fruits representing love that is never verbalized, while the English acknowledges the effort of a task as seemingly simple as cutting fruit.




CARDS


Sliding the box out of the sleeve reveals a set of cards, each with an impression of a fruit that mimics the first impression of receiving the fruit alone. Flipping each card reveals instructions for how to prepare the fruit according to my family’s habits, with what I believe to be my parents’ thoughts and intentions on the left in Chinese. I set the instructions in English since the form of the fruit is what I personally encounter and understand most immediately, and I chose not to translate the Chinese in order to represent the communication barrier between me and my parents.




SHEETS


Beneath the cards are vellum sheets with the emotion that is being communicated through each fruit printed in Chinese. Again, I chose not to translate the Chinese in order to represent the cultural barrier that may limit emotional expression.




FRUIT


Finally, lifting the vellum reveals the fruit itself. I chose to focus on the cut form of the fruit, as the act of cutting fruit into convenient shapes is the main expression of my family’s love language. I shaped the fruits from polymer clay to give them a tactile, approachable feel, and coated them in resin for a fresh, glossy sheen. I also printed the name of each fruit in English and Chinese on the trays as a label reminiscent of a dessert box.