Xia Lu, Visual Communications Design, Department of Design

Time flies. The one-year exchange study has come to an end before I even realize it. When the plane took off, there were mixed sorrows and joys, but the most was gratitude. The successful completion of this journey is inseparable from the financial and spiritual support of my parents, the guidance of my tutor and the helpful  local friends. Finally, I also want to thank myself for my efforts.

In the past six months, I have been cautious in choosing courses. The first course I chose was Software Design. With a group of students majoring in Interactive Design, we were divided into groups and our project was to design a smart housekeeper APP for remote control of home appliances. The whole process was quite interesting, and each team had its own merits in design. Another classmate and I were in charge of the graphic design part in the group.

Teacher explaining the requirements

Other groups explaining their plans

Display of part of our team’s final mobile interface

The next course was about brand design, which needed us to do visual design for our course exhibition with  “printing” as the theme. The teacher was from Poland, who was very friendly and lovely. He encouraged us to make creation with all the materials around us. The inspiration of our group came from the various stacking effects of printing paper.

Our group’s creation experiment

Then it was the long-awaited visit abroad! The whole class went to the Netherlands for a one-week investigation. We visited large and small design studios and local art galleries, and had been immersed in the environment of art and design for several days. Speaking of this, we liked everything in the Netherlands except for the commodity price! The most spectacular thing was the crowd of bicycles every morning.

Lowres creative studio

Display of studio design works

Below the first design studio we visited was a dedicated cafe and recording studio. It’s quite nice to be downstairs between jobs. They are mainly good at brand design, including providing visual design service for their clients, such as chain hotel “booking”. Featured by bright colors and simple slogans, their works were well received by local commercial customers.

Through the designer’s narration, I learned that his wife is an illustrator. The cafe downstairs had her art works hanging on the wall, which were sometimes bought by customers.