Yinghua Ye
I am a graphic Design student interested in exploring the relationship between design, technology and contemporary visual culture. My practice combines graphic design, visual research and experimental image-making to examine how social, cultural and technological systems shape the way we see, communicate and understand ourselves. I am particularly interested in themes such as algorithmic culture, visual identity, aesthetic standards and social media. Through research-led and critical design practice, I experiment with typography, image-making, collage, publication and poster design to translate complex ideas into accessible visual experiences. I see graphic design not only as a form of communication, but also as a tool for questioning systems, behaviours and assumptions embedded in everyday visual culture.
RECOMMENDED SELF
RECOMMENDED SELF
Extract—Validate—Rank— Repeat—Feedback —Self-Correct
This project explores how social media recommendation algorithms shape contemporary beauty standards and contribute to aesthetic homogenisation. The project examines how individual facial features are extracted, classified, ranked and repeatedly circulated as desirable visual patterns. Through recommendation, repetition and feedback, certain appearances gain greater visibility, gradually forming recognisable aesthetic templates. Rather than suggesting that algorithms directly determine how people look, the project focuses on how users actively adapt their self-presentation in response to these systems, adjusting their appearance to align with what is more visible, recognisable and rewarded. Through a series of six posters — Extract, Validate, Rank, Repeat, Feedback and Self-Correct — the project visualises this algorithmic cycle and questions how technological systems can amplify existing beauty standards while reducing visible diversity and encouraging forms of self-regulation.
