Daphne Tsang
Poignant graphic design that highlights deeply rooted socio-cultural issues
Inquisitive graphic designer, Daphne Tsang is delving into research-heavy topics and raising pressing social issues. Yet, she’s visually communicating these simply and accessibly, which lets us reflect and think on.
Growing up, Daphne was always encouraged and supported by her parents to pursue her passion for art and design. However, this is not always the case for children in China. Daphne tells us that typically, art and design are “subjects that are deemed to be unemployable and are vastly discouraged to take upon for studying”. Thankfully, Daphne’s upbringing allowed her to explore her interest which has taken her across the other side of the world to the UK.
After studying art based A-levels in the UK, Daphne went on to study BA graphic design at Kingston School of Art. Here, she tells us she “began to fall in love with graphic design”. Being introduced to conceptual design thinking, this encouraged new ways of learning for Daphne where “weird” experimentations allowed her to develop and grow. At Kingston, she found that – one, she “couldn’t stop talking about Hong Kong” and two, a passion for print design practice. Now, Daphne studies on the MA graphic media design course at London College of Communication to expand her research and explore social issues.
Daphne’s BA dissertation publication, “Appropriation or Appreciation? An Exploration of Cultural Appropriation on Orientals in the Creative Industry”, explores a darker side of the industry and raises a pressing issue. “Whilst I love London’s diverse culture in the creative industry, I feel like there are still some loopholes. Such as the microaggressions I’ve experienced and have heard from other minorities around the UK. I was amazed and shocked at the same time to find out I was able to print the East Asian racial slur from a printing company for my graduate show, no questions asked”, discloses Daphne. This is a dreadful issue, and deeply troubling – one that must change.
The dream? Daphne reveals to us that she’d love to set up a book store that supports young independent publishers or student work and sources East Asian orientated publications from around the world. Already with a brilliant BA body of work behind her, we’re excited to see how her MA portfolio shapes up.
