Meet Lydia Leiwang | Motion Designer & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lydia Leiwang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lydia, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Haha, I guess this is one of the most frequently asked questions for artists. Perhaps I can extend this question a bit, why did I choose to become a motion designer?

I attribute it to my family background and my experience of living in a multicultural environment. This multicultural background has allowed me to try more things artistically, while it has also troubled me by identity crisis and sense of belonging. I was born in Xinjiang, China, where there is a large Central Asian Muslim community, so I was influenced by diverse cultures and values early on. Fortunately, both of my parents are art lovers. They discovered my artistic talents and encouraged my interest in drawing, so I had a dream of becoming an artist from a young age. I officially started planning my creative career in 2014, when I just started college and moved to Lhasa, Tibet with my family. I learned Tangka painting from a painter neighbor who is originally from Nepal. Since then, I have been deeply attracted to the visual language system and techniques of Buddhist paintings, which inspired me to pursue further studies in illustration and consider moving to Nepal or Bhutan.

My next stop was Hong Kong, thousands of kilometers away. At that time, I was studying creative media at City University of Hong Kong, focusing on visual design, animation, and post-production for film and television. The urban lifestyle in Hong Kong was quite different from my life in Xinjiang and Lhasa. This contrast motivated me to start planning my creative career, hoping to find a balance between traditional painting and digital media to make traditional painting more attractive. Considering the need for employment, I positioned myself as a visual designer and photographer, and started exploring hand-drawn animation in my spare time. Under the guidance of a professor, I started making experimental animations in Premiere Pro and After Effects, exploring personal identity under the impact of multiculturalism.

Motion graphics design helped me uniting all the fragmented multimedia art practice. Until 2016, I had never heard of the term “motion design”, and had been struggling with how to bridge the gap between 2D graphics and animation. By chance, a client asked me if I would be willing to help them make an explainer video, which opened the door to motion design for me. I realized that motion design was the balance point between tradition and modernity, 2D graphics and animation that I had been looking for all these years – it is more flexible and versatile, and motion designers mostly have diverse artistic backgrounds, such as illustration, graphic design, 3D animation, video editing, and even computer programming. I almost immediately embraced this new change with open arms – started from then I positioned myself as a visual designer who has skills in web design and motion design.

I am not solely focused on motion design, but mastering motion design skills has absolutely made me more competitive in the job market. In college, I started making title sequences for the school’s promotional videos, creating promotional materials for a folk orchestra, running their YouTube channel, and editing concert videos. These part-time jobs filled my resume and eventually helped me achieve economic freedom. After graduation, I found a full-time designer job at the Hong Kong branch of a European investment bank. The most interesting part of the job was designing brands for newly listed financial products, including making websites, a series of explainer videos, and designing mascots to be distributed to clients during roadshows. Therefore, I need to work with financial analysts, understanding how these financial products are designed, and then visualizing them in a way that non-experts can easily understand. I am grateful to my analyst colleagues for patiently explaining their profit formulas to me, as well as helping me write scripts and communicate with vendors, especially since I struggled with math in high school. This job in the bank’s marketing department helped me grow into an independent and mature designer with strong execution and communication skills. In my spare time, I continue to learn software skills and work as a freelance designer in the market.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I now define myself as a motion designer and illustrator. I am most proud of my experience studying Buddhist painting in Lhasa, which I believe sets me apart from other digital artists and has undoubtedly influenced my artistic practice for the past decade. To this day, I love high saturation and strong contrast color schemes because I enjoy the vitality and energy they convey to the audience, such as the combination of blue and orange or green and pink-purple. I love tattoos, which has made me passionate about line art, and I heavily use textures and noise in motion design to create a more traditional look.

I am a supporter of retro-futuristic aesthetics, and “telling fresh stories in a traditional way” is my main focus in non-commercial projects. When asked what sets me apart, I would say diversity and execution. My experience in illustration, hand-drawn animation, scriptwriting, and installation art enables me to adopt flexible methods and design styles in dynamic design. Most of my work mixes illustration, 3D animation, and graphic design, allowing me to explore more possibilities in the creative industry. Additionally, I am an expert in multitasking and project management. Years of freelance experience have enabled me to manage complex design projects, plan schedules, and maintain a work-life balance.

Along the way, I have faced many challenges in exploring my identity as an artist, and the main obstacle has been issues of identity and belonging. In this regard, having a multicultural background has undoubtedly been a hindrance. Where am I from? Where is my spiritual homeland? How do I define myself as an artist? As I mentioned at the beginning, my school life studying digital media in a big city and my life in a religiously rich small town made up of snow mountains, temples, and thangka shops were very disjointed. Even more challenging is that neither of these lifestyles is my homeland. My solution may be a bit cliché, which is to read, meditate, do yoga, and travel. I would say that as an artist, spiritual practice has helped me discover more creative potential and possibilities. Once I have reconstructed my identity, it becomes easier to answer these questions: What kind of artist am I? What kind of life do I want? Additionally, I am glad that I completed these practices before coming to the United States because, as an Asian immigrant, I now face even stronger cultural shocks. Of course, this challenge will bring more possibilities and inspiration to my life and ultimately reflect in my work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If you’re looking for something to do, spend a day wandering around Savannah’s downtown area. It’s a quaint little place, if you’re into that sort of thing. I might take you to check out City Market and River Street, grab a beer or two, maybe even do some sketching. You could see the sunset at Tybee Island and, if you’re not too tired, catch the sunrise too. Later, we could hit up Collins Quarter in Forsyth Park for brunch and lounge around on some hammocks, shooting the breeze. For dinner, I’d recommend 700 Drayton Restaurant. And if you’re into poke bowls, Nom Nom’s got a decent one, or you could try the Greek gyro at Yia Yia’s Kitchen. If we’re lucky enough to be around on a Saturday, we could swing by Foxy Loxy for some coffee and roasted marshmallows.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This list will be long! I wholeheartedly love every person in my support system, and I am infinitely grateful for the care, support, and love that I have enjoyed along the way. This support system has been with me time and time again, inspiring me to overcome the challenges in my life and work. Among these great people, the first name I want to shout out is my husband Senjun Fan, my dearest friend, family member, and life partner. I thank him for wholeheartedly supporting my artistic dreams for fifteen years and for being with me as I grew into a reliable adult. I love every one of my friends, Rosangela, Qiping, Alison, Echo, Xinran, Alina, Rutian, Adi. I cannot imagine life without you all.

From City University of Hong Kong to Savannah College of Arts and Design, I am grateful to every educator who saw my talent and encouraged me to continue exploring my artistic identity. Their guidance and companionship have made this journey much easier for me. Here, I want to shout out the names of my animation professors at City University of Hong Kong, Eddie Hiu Ming Leung and Max Hattler. Thank you, Eddie, for introducing me to the world of animation and for helping me continue my studies when I was struggling with depression. Thank you, Professor Hattler, for teaching me about After Effects and exposing me to experimental animation, which gave me the opportunity to explore unconventional narrative styles in the field of animation and eventually enter the field of motion design.

Website: www.listen2pic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/listen2pic/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiansui-leiwang-276374146/

Other: Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user82122317