Hi! I’m Yaqi, an illustrator and designer whose practice sits across comics, illustration, branding and graphic design.
A lot of my work begins with personal experience, memory and conversations with others. I am drawn to subtle emotions and the quiet ways our past continues to shape who we are, what we hold onto, and where we feel we belong.
My recent work also includes projects for the University of Edinburgh, Tencent Video and Vortex Game AI, as well as selected work presented through Secret 7”, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and other exhibition contexts. Across both personal and client-led projects, I aim to create thoughtful, emotionally resonant visuals with a clear sense of communication.
A 48 pages Graphic Novel. What begins as a mother and daughter's trip to Beijing opens into a return to the past. As the daughter looks towards the city with excitement, the mother is drawn back to her own memories of arriving there in the 1990s......
Created in response to the D&AD New Blood Duolingo brief, this project explores how the brand could extend into travel partnerships. The resulting campaign concept, Landingo, is a playful, on-brand activation linking language learning with real-world travel moments.
A 20-page small book, Life As Film follows the narrative of a poem I wrote, imaginatively describing the experience of what might happen if my life became a film. The illustrations are all hand-drawn using coloured pencil, watercolour, soft pastels and oil pastels.