We’re thrilled to announce the seven talented designers chosen by our jury as finalists for the 2021 CUP Fellowship for Change in Design! While we can only choose one designer to work with for the year, we’re showcasing all of our finalists in the spirit of cultivating and uplifting new talent in the design field.
Jina Alhenawi is a multidisciplinary artist and designer from Jersey City, NJ and a soon-to-be graduate from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in graphic design. She has worked with several student-run initiatives at RISD such as Color the Conversation and RISD Students for Justice in Palestine, and she aims to continue to use the power of design to serve and advocate for marginalized communities. By working with kindness, empathy, and sensitivity, she believes she is able to connect further with her community and her work.
Jung Hyo (Lucy) Baik is a Korean-American designer from Southern California and is a recent graduate of Boston University with a BFA in Graphic Design. She considers herself not only a designer but also a storyteller who likes to document surprising moments with motion and colors. She believes art and design act as an international language that has been bringing people together without any barriers. Her goal is to keep expanding her perspectives in design by exploring different mediums and using those to create more conversations and share people’s untold stories.
Marisa Hetzler is a recent graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s graphic design program. (She’s also a sagittarius, serial outfit repeater, Adventure Time fan, and candy wrapper collector). Outside of her school and freelance work, she has also been serving as creative director at the Collegiate Association for Artists of Color. She loves how graphic design allows her to research complex topics like race, mental health and identity. Projects she enjoys the most are ones that allow her to learn a little more about the world, herself, and how we all interact with one another.
Sarah Kanu is an illustrator and fine artist with a BFA in Communications Design (Illustration) & a Minor in Social Justice from Pratt Institute. She served as BSU President and Equity and Inclusion Chair on Student Government, hosting several in-person and online events and working to bring a Black Studies Minor to the school. She was born and raised in Abuja, Nigeria; Dallas, Texas & currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Passionate about printmaking and collage, they utilize those tools to create graphic, raw & textured illustrations and designs driven by social concepts & non-fiction narratives.
Jay Li is a designer from Atlanta examining poetics in design. He cherishes the image of a “designer as cook”—steeping in others’ perspectives, intimate research, and communal tradition to serve and nourish people first. Holding a sensitivity to the power of his mouth to invest, demand, and reinvigorate—one of many things he discovered snacking late nights as a recent Boston University grad—he supplements a relational practice with authorship in print design, digital experiences, visual systems, branding & ad strategy.
Will Liang is a multidisciplinary designer and artist from Shenzhen, China, and now based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work explores issues around cultural identity and diaspora from a queer Asian immigrant’s perspective. She aims to amplify unheard voices in the community through her cross-disciplinary creative practice. Ever since she received her BFA degree from California College of the Arts, her work has involved brand identity, visual storytelling, web design, as well as other fun motion graphics work. She loves starting a project over a genuine and inclusive conversation with people.
Winnie Yoe is a Hong Kong-born, New York-based designer and artist. She researches, designs, and prototypes interactive experiences and visual stories to communicate complex information around issues of social justice. Her practice draws from a background in interaction design, data visualization, and code, integrated with participatory approaches. Her work has been showcased at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) (KR), IMPAKT Festival (NL), Governors Island (US), and Tai Kwun Contemporary (HK) among others. She graduated from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and Dartmouth College.