Liu
Lobbin Liu is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn. She sets her sights on not only something conventionally appealing but also something that people usually ignore, avoid, or consider taboo. In her works, you see how ordinary as well as unconventional sparks can be projected onto her practices and how the way of working influences the critical sight of her daily life. Intentionally or not, her works are rooted in the moments of discomfort within conventional beauty and allure. She seeks the poetic within the failures, dilemmas, confusions, clumsiness, frustrations, and stupidities that she deals with every day.
Lobbin works in visual design, digital interactives, spatial graphics, performance, and more. Her works try to create unconventional experiences by fusing senses and by merging disciplines. Her collaboration with scientists, engineers, and musicians reimagines and breaks the boundary of what role design plays in various contexts. Her works have been juried and awarded by Tokyo TDC, New York TDC, GDC committees, etc, and have been exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Los Angeles, Paris, Shanghai, and more. She has been invited to talk and critique at multiple academic and artistic institutions in the United States like Rhode Island School of Design, New York University, Boston University, etc., and in China like Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Graphic Design in China Committee, Shenzhen Technology University and more. Lobbin holds a MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from RISD.
Lobbin also publish under the name lob_in Press and work on branding under the name FDMT Design. To request for our work samples, please email lobbinliu@gmail.com
- 2023
- poster
- Dru Donovan is a photographer whose work explores connections between corporal and emotional states, as well as the relationships between individuals, utilizing strategies of constructing or revisiting experiences. In the poster design for her guest lecture at the Yale School of Art in 2023, her works were deconstructed in a way of creating visual interruptions while maintaining the rich emotional continuity within her pieces, the designer’s understanding of the subtle yet concrete relationships between fragments in the photographer’s work, further elucidating the interplay between Dru Donovan and her creations.
- 2024
- exhibition identity, exhibition catalogue
- 2024 MFA Thesis Touring Exhibition in Graphic Design
- Exhibition conducted by Yale GD 24’
- Catalogue design collaborated with Daedalus Li
- Typeface used: Gerstner-Programm by forgotten_shapes
- 2024
- visual identity, spatial graphic
- The work served as the visual identity integrated into the campus space for the Yale School of Art Open Studio 2024. We transformed the campus into a game board, manipulating the scale of tokens, dice, maps, figures, and buildings to encourage visitors to join the "game" as they explored the sites. Yale SoA is where we intertwine, create, have fun, and collectively generate new meaning. The traces of our lives intersect here and branch out into endless possibilities. Within the open studio, we invite others to traverse the same routes we navigate every day, to witness and participate in our experiences—much like joining a shared game and having fun together. Through this concept, we aim to reimagine the pathways that connect our five departments as a dynamic game board, like Monopoly or Ludo, where the trajectories of each department converge and diverge, creating our narratives. As visitors explore our spaces, they can "play" and become a part of our games.
- The graphic identity created by Lobbin Liu and Chuye Chen (JUICE). Production, digital strategy, and content management by Lindsey Mancini and Sarah Stevens-Morling.
- 2024
- publication
- 𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒹𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝓅𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝑒𝓈, 𝒻𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈, 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓀𝓁𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓃𝓈 (𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉𝓈), 𝓂𝓎𝓉𝒽, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓃'𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒
- 2023
- installation, editorial
- The zine, “Eyeglasses as context holder, imitator, indicator; eyeglasses as receiver, filter, translator; eyeglasses as measurement, establishment, intrusion,” documents a series of my research and reinterpretation processes on the graphic visual formation and interactivities of eyeglasses, exploring various meanings of an everyday item in terms of visuality, functionality, and proximity. The zine can be opened and read from any page; each page runs parallel to the others, and every page serves as both the cover and the content. Just like the subject of this book, various identities/meanings coexist.
- Copies available, please contact.
- 2023
- Wayfinding design for sonic artist Ash Fure's solo show at Yale Schwarzman Center, October 21-28, 2023
Wayfinding collaborated with Youngjin Park
The whole visual design team: Dydanni Dai, Yi Song, Chaewon You, Lobbin Liu, Youngjin Park, Louise Mandumbwa, Darnel Henderson, Kayla Hawkins
Photo p5 by The Collective NHV
- 2023
- installation
- In March 2023, I attempted to herd a flock of six kites across the skies of New Haven, grazing a patch of sea in my hometown, Shenzhen. They were carried by the winds, wrapped around by the towering buildings in the city center, swaying and tumbling, barely reaching a depth of 1.7 fathoms (approximately three meters) before crashing miserably, broken on the ground, or entangled in tree branches. At that time, I ran and screamed on the New Haven Green, trying to control them with the strings, but I was utterly helpless and powerless and could not control anything. That is my failed work, “Nomadic, Collage I”.
- In May, I attemptedretried to fly pieces of Shenzhen’s sky on the ground of Edgewood Gallery. Six kites are constrained in the wood frame, rampaging around in vain and finding a way out until they are entangled with each other and get completely stuck. This video documents my second attempt, “Nomadic, Collage II.”