Interview with Xun Zuo
Xun Zuo is a multi-disciplinary designer whose work lives at the intersection of brand, environment, and culture.
Design Legend Interview
5 November 2025
After studying painting for several years in high school, I entered a university to study packaging design, where I began my professional practice as a brand designer. A few years later, I transferred to the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to study brand design and then pursued a master’s degree in Visual Communication Design at Pratt Institute. I am now working at a creative agency in New York, focusing on brand activation and spatial experience design.
When I was a child, I was deeply fascinated by cars, not so much by their mechanical engineering, but by their aesthetic design. Drawing the cars I imagined and building them out of LEGO became my favorite childhood pastime. Over time, this passion evolved into an interest in fashion and sports, which eventually inspired me to pursue a career as a designer.
I chose to be a designer, but at the beginning I signed up for product design, not graphic design.
I design brands. My practice and research began with creating packaging and visual systems, but now I am shifting toward designing unique experiences for brands.
Truly love the profession you’re in, but don’t fall too much in love with your own work.
Stay sharp, skeptical, and a little bit ruthless.
Stay sharp, skeptical, and a little bit ruthless.
Good designers create beautiful things, but great designers create work that makes a real impact on society.
I always ask myself: Who is the audience for this design? What do they need? Are these needs real and urgent? How does this design address and fulfill them? How do its form and function interact effectively? What are its commercial and social values? Is it distinctive? And does it embody aesthetic excellence?
Good design is about efficiency. It sells products better, builds smarter structures, streamlines workflows, and accelerates communication. Good design reduces waste and misunderstanding. It unites stakeholders and consumers.
I might continue to pursue my passion for automotive and footwear design. I design for myself.
ChatGPT said:
My dream project is to design a system that helps local small businesses better express their value and connect more deeply with their communities and cultures. Through design, I want to empower them to compete with increasingly homogenized global corporations—while also helping those corporations understand, respect, and celebrate local culture.
My dream project is to design a system that helps local small businesses better express their value and connect more deeply with their communities and cultures. Through design, I want to empower them to compete with increasingly homogenized global corporations—while also helping those corporations understand, respect, and celebrate local culture.
I don’t think I have a fixed formula for design, because every project is different. But I’d say Virgil Abloh’s “3% rule” is often my starting point.
Virgil Abloh is a great designer who has been a major source of inspiration for me. I also draw influence from artists like Futura and Takashi Murakami. Beyond that, I learn and grow by studying the work of various design institutions—from multinational companies like 2x4 to independent creative studios.
I love Virgil Abloh’s The Ten series. It preserved the classic look of Nike sneakers while completely reconstructing them from the inside out. What inspires me most isn’t just the shoes themselves, but the transparency and openness behind Virgil’s process. He shared his sketches, methods, prototypes, and experiments — that openness toward showing how things are made deeply influenced me. It’s the stories and thinking behind the designs that I truly love.
In my personal work, one project I really love is Hins’ Island, a low-poly 3D island design. It’s neither a logo, nor a poster, nor a book; it’s a form of self-expression, the only project where I am both the designer and the client.
See more design, visit the museum, and talk with other designers.
I don't know. I could become a code writer or a barista.
It's storytelling and problem-solving in a visually appreciated way.
My parents. My professors, especially the one American professor I met in China. He helped me a lot in both academics and life.
The design is a fun thing to do for me. That helps me a lot.
Experience. A designer must keep creating and practicing to make a greater impact — to prove their ability to shape society through design. That’s what I’m still lacking.
Designers should ensure that their work is presented within a thoughtfully designed context.
more brand activations
I hope the design systems I create can help local small businesses win — to become the coolest and most beloved things in their communities.
cool, new, and fun visual solutions.
Good design helps society become more efficient and eliminates misunderstanding — especially in an increasingly polarized world. Good design should also empower underrepresented communities.
I love helping brands communicate more effectively with their audiences. Some of my recent experiential design projects have achieved exactly that.
I designed a very cool café in Taiwan. It feels like my own child. It’s become a place both locals and tourists love to visit, and seeing people take photos inside truly makes me happy.
AI is a revolutionary shift, and the democratization of design is another major trend. I’m curious about how professional designers can redefine their place within this new landscape.
Designers are increasingly shifting from executional work toward creative direction.
Some projects take me a month to complete, while others never truly end — they become ongoing works that require continuous care and evolution.
I sink myself into the related visuals and study of the customers.
Just Do It
It’s an ongoing interaction: design draws inspiration from social trends, then shapes aesthetic trends; those aesthetics become archives, ready to influence future designs and movements.
Technology is the most crucial consideration — creativity is limitless, but only technology can turn ideas into real impact.
Adobe, C4D
These are the ingredients I often work with — I think about how they interact with my visuals from the very beginning of the design process to create the vibe I want.
Why you do this?
Everyday, in everywhere.
I don’t have an ideal model, but I believe good design requires the input of diverse perspectives and points of view.
All of my coworkers, especially my boss.
Designing Design, Kenya Hara
I’m always learning through projects, but my educational background has shaped a mindset where I constantly ask myself, whenever I see something: How was this made?
Probably everyone from the Bauhaus school.
For designers, yes — because we’re always working behind the scenes.
Black, blue and grey green. New York. Coffee. Fall. Sneakers. Audi and Nike
Design is a very enjoyable fun job for me, but I can hardly think of any funny experiences. Even though I enjoy it, I always try to stay serious about it.
See people enjoying my design, buying the product I designed, and support my client.
I spent most of my class time drawing comics, which my teachers never allowed — but looking back, that was probably a sign.
I hope humanity has become an interstellar species. Meeting and living peacefully with extraterrestrial life. But it’s also possible that our civilization won’t survive the next millennium if we don’t make real change.
Designer Interview
7 August 2025
As I grew up, I developed a strong passion for comics and illustration. Later, my interest expanded to fashion and the creative worlds of renowned brands and designers. The intersection of these influences naturally led me to pursue a career in graphic design.
Design is the rational analysis of emotional needs, followed by the search for thoughtful solutions.
Sports, fashion, lifestyle, and immersive experiences—all through the lens of brand expression.
There’s a lot I enjoy, but I’m especially drawn to bold, unconventional, and boundary-pushing interdisciplinary design practices.
At the start of my career, I designed business cards and packaging for a number of restaurants.
ChatGPT said:
Metal, silicone, frosted glass, CNC machining, and 3D printing.
Metal, silicone, frosted glass, CNC machining, and 3D printing.
After my coffee run.
Balance across shapes and colors.
People repost it, wear it, and talk about it.
Is it popular? Is it to deliver the information correctly and efficiently?
Designers play a role in shaping public understanding of beauty—making the pursuit of it more efficient, accessible, and sustainable.
Design is a tool in service of society, and as society’s modes of production continue to evolve, so too must design. The future of design lies in using new tools to solve problems that, at their core, remain much the same as today.
Nothing is ever 100% original. I draw inspiration for innovation from great artists, designers, craftsmen, musicians, and athletes.
My personal style leans toward the playful, bold, and colorful, but in my practice, style is always in service of the client.
I moved from my hometown to New York City. My heritage shaped my work ethic and resilience more than my aesthetic or style. In New York, I’m exposed to a rich diversity of design and art—but the cost of creative practice is undeniably higher.
Find the one person who genuinely loves your product or service; that's where everything begins.
Receive the brief, sketch ideas, brainstorm with the team, refine the concepts—then repeat.
listening
Nike, US Soccer, MoMA
Interview about Roots Zines Grand Interview