Muchen Li
I am a graphic designer whose practice focuses on critical and participatory design. Through my work, I bring attention to familiar social issues that are often overlooked or rarely questioned. I aim to encourage audiences to take part and consider these issues from different perspectives.
I believe that designers do more than communicate information. Design also influences what people notice, how value is understood, and what tends to be ignored. My work often uses highly saturated colours and bold graphics to engage audiences and make complex topics more visible and easier to discuss.
The Success Exchange
As competition in China’s graduate job market grows, success is increasingly defined by a familiar formula: a prestigious university, a high GPA, scholarships, certificates and, finally, a job offer. Although these standards are never formally stated, they are reinforced through visual symbols and gradually become a way for young people to measure their own value.
This project explores how success is visually constructed through symbols such as little red flowers, school awards, organisational emblems, qualifications and degree certificates. Together, they form a path of achievement leading towards a job offer.
I redesigned these symbols as empty packages that can be collected, weighed and exchanged using Success Tokens, a currency representing time and energy. The empty packages suggest that the real cost of success is not the certificate itself, but the time, energy and life experience spent earning it.
When success can be measured, weighed and exchanged, what are we really trading away? In the process, are we also accepting other people’s definitions of success without noticing?
