- March 4, 2021
Peri Chiu: “Data analysis help me to understand who are my main target audience, increase SEO, as well as to track my performance”
Reading Time: 7 minutesInfluenced by the UK art and London design style, Peri Chiu has recently set up the StreetW Studio and is working as a multi-disciplinary designer, specialising in brand identity, social media campaigns, motion graphics and video production. Read more about her and her work as a designer.
How is your job as a designer? Tell us about how you work nowadays and about StreetW Studio.
It’s been such an exciting journey working as a multi-disciplinary designer.
I have up-to 15-20 projects per week on average. This includes video intro, animation, brand identity (Logo, business card), Social media campaigns and a few personal / collaboration / promotional projects on a daily basis.
My job includes researching about companies, resources, then of course the design works, content creation, web design, client’s proposal / presentation, replying emails / DMs, and also the public relation part in social media channels, as well as to maintain its profile up-to-date.
The most exciting part about the StreetW Studio, is how I started it by posting a few magazine designs, to an evolution of motion graphics, 3D design and animation. In which, I have created many different themes every week, and aimed to attract more audience to feel interested about my work. This includes quite a few Cyber Vibes “Born Digital”, “Thriving with Nature”, “Branding with Nature”, “ZE:BRA”, “Digital Nature: DEEY”, “Entering / 2021” and “Art-e”. The progression and resulting work has been going extremely well so far, and today the StreetW studio has reached a staggering 3.8k followers from day by day.
How is working for projects? How do you relate with your clients?
My clients are mainly based in the UK, or from Hong Kong. But since I started the StreetW Studio, I also get clients that are from Australia (Sydney), the US (NYC, Bristol, Las Vegas), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Brazil (Paraibuna). In which, I mainly received projects from clients / companies that are related to logo design, branding, social media campaigns, video intro and animation.
I also do a lot of collaboration projects with different design agencies, graphic designers, and digital marketing companies for promotional purposes. I have built quite a strong social network and professional relationship with other designers and companies. Especially through the Instagram platform.
It is quite challenging working in many design sectors at the same time. I have to do multitasking most of the time. Let’s say for instance, I do logo / campaign design while waiting for the video / animation to render. Then when the rendering process has been completed, I’d then get back to the video project to fix the graphic details or start another video project.
I also do a lot of PR work during my break time. Such as researching for new potential clients, or posting new updates on my social media channel and also interact with other users with the aim to increase visibility of my design portfolio.
What can you tell us about your teaching experience?
I have joined the Explore Teaching Scheme from my University. My role is mainly responsible for support in the expressive Arts department at the Westminster Academy (London, UK). Specifically supported year 7 to year 11 students in preparation of the art GCSE. In addition, I also supported a SEN & EAL student in year 8 in Science and Maths, particularly focused on individuals with special educational needs who benefit form 1:1 support.
Specifically in teaching, I mainly supported the art teachers in lesson planning, giving ideas of new assignments and preparation of learning resources. I also taught year 7 students in Calligraphy and children storybook design. The resulting work was incredibly successful and the lessons were very engaging.
I really enjoyed sharing ideas with students, with the aim to enlighten student’s hidden capabilities, bring inspiration and motivation to inspire the young community. The most rewarding part of teaching is to see students being successful, being passionate and appreciating to engage with the subject. Seeing their improvement, and progression with a prospective future goal. On the other hand, my students have also inspired me to become a much stronger person with full enthusiasm in art and design and also motivated myself to achieve one’s ambition.
Which is the most common tip you share with your students?
It’s quite funny that many of my students have asked me similar questions “Miss, how do I get rich from being an artist?” or “Should I study art in university?” Their questions always make me smile. As in the past, I didn’t think as much as them. When I have chosen to study abroad in the UK for art and design. Now when I think about it, that was very brave, and it was a life changing decision. But anyway, I always asked my students that “do you really enjoy creating? Do you enjoy the whole process from research to finalising your creation?” Or “do you just do it for fun?” I showed them examples of what graphic design really is, and what is it like to work in the design industry as a career. (Such as examples of basic Logo design, web design, magazine layout, Film & Photography sites) Of course art itself is another direction. (Such as Illustration, fine art, crafts, painting, sketching, animation) I think it is extremely important for them to understand what direction they will get into if they choose to study or work in the creative industry.
My common tip to students is that “you need to re-think what position you want to be in 5-10 years’ time” Getting rich should not be the first consideration. But to understand what is your true passion that you will enjoy to do everyday on a daily basis. Your enthusiasm and creativity will be your most precious asset.
How do you combine design with digital marketing?
With a belief of “Data never lies”, I believe that data provides the most accurate information which will help to grow my portfolio. It is necessary for designers to learn the basis of UI/UX, brand development, social media marketing, and data analysis, if any of their projects involve web design, app development or even just promoting their social media channels.
Let’s give an example of combining design with social media marketing.
Data analysts on Facebook / Instagram / Google (business Insights) help me to understand who are my main target audience, increase SEO, as well as to track my performance when it comes to impressing my audience while reaching new visitors.
Refer to the data, I can then develop custom content, visual languages and brand strategy to improve quality of my future works.
What tools do you use for designing?
Adobe After Effects is my favourite software, its function allows me to create motion graphics, kinetic typography, 3D design and animation. Most commonly, I use adobe illustrator and photoshop for logo design / illustration / photo editing. InDesign for editorial and layout format. Premiere pro for video editing. Sometimes I also use Lightroom and Audition for extra sound and visual editing. Adobe XR for User Interface and user experience design. Recently, I started to use Blender, C4D and Cinema 4D. With an aim to improve my visual design skill-set in 3D / 4D motion graphics and animation.
How do you get your inspiration for moving images and video production?
Spontaneous creation is the best inspiration.
In my opinion, the best way to find new inspiration for moving images and video production is by browsing resources, and starting to learn new effects, or even a new design software. Explore different forms of textures, and just play around with the resources and combine the knowledge that I have. Such as the use of different effects, time mapping, sounds, and layouts. The resulting works are always surprisingly well. The more I create, the better it gets next time. But then of course, another most common yet effective way to look for inspiration is to visit other artist’s / designer’s portfolios. Actually speak to them or leave them a comment, and sometimes they will give me interesting advice of what I should look for.
How is working with drones and combining techniques to innovate?
In most of my video works, I spent at least 1-2 days to plan the storyboard, visual sequences, filming direction – angles, location, themes, and acting if required. It is essential to plan everything ahead of what to film and how to film the subject with the drone before spending a whole day / half a day of filming. It will save up so much time for the project. Also, It is important to learn how to apply its tracking or zoom feature with the scene. Such as the expressive mid range shots, super zoom, or dolly Zoom is another interesting one. But of course sometimes the best footage came from my spontaneous feeling while I was flying the drone.
Personally, I think drone filming really encourages myself to think out of the box. It is a combo for an excellent project when we combine drone footage, camera footage, afters effects, transition effects, and 4D animation all together. Especially when it comes to increasing quality and impression to the audience.
How do you think design and technology will keep developing together?
The evolution of technology has opened up many new creative possibilities to various industry sectors.
The fact that 5G and fibre optics have become available in many countries. It enables many new design areas to be developed due to the much higher speed of the internet. For instance, the application of VR (Virtual reality) / AR (Augmented reality) / XR (Extended reality), interactive 360 design, UI/UX, software engineering and AI development are becoming much more common working in the creative field. Design is no longer only about editing or putting things together. Learning new effects, and softwares opens up new creative possibilities when applying those skills into multiple design projects.
What branding tips could you give to an entrepreneur?
Running a creative business could be one of the most exciting and challenging experiences you’d ever get. If anyone is looking into creating a new brand or a personal brand, I’d highly recommend you to start with understanding what is your interest and your true passion. It could be based on your profession or even just a hobby of yours. Once you have an idea of what you would like to share, then the next step you would need to think about is your brand and visual languages. Such as the Logo design, the colour themes, use of typefaces, and of course most importantly, how would you like to present your services or products on your social media feed and website. Of course, if you’d like your profile to stand out from the crowd, you’d then need to develop your content to storytelling. Find new ways to share your ideas with an impressive style. It would be a bonus if you can combine campaign design, photography, videography, motion graphics, or even interactive design and VR / AR technology all together as a whole package. This will definitely increase visibility and interest to the audience to learn about your story of your brand.
I believe that as a creative individual, it is always essential to stay innovative with a desire to learn and progress. By experimenting new skill-set and integrating new ways of design methodology will help us to unlock creativity. Working as a designer, it is important for us to re-think about what design and technology will hold in the future. Also, how could we drive creativity and design innovation worldwide.
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