SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY NEWHOUSE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS
Heyo! I’m Natalia Deng Yuan, a senior pursuing my BS in Graphic Design at Syracuse University. My design work is driven by play through UI/UX design, motion design, immersive design, typography design, pigeons, and chickens! I started off 2023 attending MIT Reality Hack, where my team won the Effect House AR Short Film Festival track. My teammates and I created 16 TikTok effect filters in under 48 hours. Through this hackathon experience, I am looking to pursue a career in XR and UI/UX design. Nonetheless, as someone who knows six languages, I am hoping to continue to combine my multilingual skills with design to help more people.
WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL INSPIRED?
Designing for good purposes that make people happy inspires me to create more for others. I love it when design help and connects communities together.
WHAT ARE YOU READING/LISTENING TO/WATCHING?
I am currently watching people on TikTok using one of the filters I created during the hackathon; trying to understand how a simple filter of pigeons flying went viral.
WHAT IS ONE THING THAT DESIGN SCHOOL HAS TAUGHT YOU THAT YOU DID NOT EXPECT?
In high school, I learned that words are powerful, but in college, I learned that by combining words and visuals, the impact is even more powerful. Visuals can reach wider audiences; whether they can understand the language or not, the visuals can still communicate to a certain degree and evoke emotions.
WHO IS SOMEONE YOU LOOK UP TO IN YOUR FIELD? EITHER TODAY OR HISTORICALLY?
That got to be Don Allen Stevenson, who’s pioneering the future of XR. He shares his insight and experiments of XR, Ai, and web3 with creativity on the internet.
