Rosy Tsai Info

Design / Identity

Conceptualised during the COVID-19 pandemic, Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s 2021 exhibition Affect Machine: Self-Healing in the Post-Capitalist Era reflects on global overproduction and asks how, in the post-capitalist age, art can empower people to slow down and face their subjectivity.

Exhibition & brochure photography ©Taipei Fine Arts Museum

The visual concept – which ran across all elements, from the identity to the exhibition assets and catalogue – was based on Rebecca Horn’s Titanus Yellow (1988), a sculpture that rhythmically releases yellow powder from a wall-mounted machine to a glass funnel on the ground.

This art installation appeals to the senses, thus encouraging the viewer to return to their own body and experience, making a fitting starting point for this exhibition’s identity; the idea is to connect the graphics with the various artists exhibited while, conceptually speaking, sending out a healing wave to gallery-goers.

The yellow circles in the main visual are laid out based on the funnel’s cross-sections, with the ever-increasingly scaled-down circles and rhythmic graphic elements pointing to a mechanical funnelling motion.

The exhibition brochure is bi-lingual, with Chinese translation typeset on yellow pages.

Creative direction / Design / Identity

Meditation app Manjit has a noble aim: empowering the mind to fulfil an individual’s creativity and potential, thereby bettering society. The identity design reflects this, reimagining the landscape-driven visuals typically associated with meditation offerings.

Logo design Or Type; CG & VFX Art Jace Harrison Crowley; Teaser campaign Toby Lewis Thomas; Photography Hugo Yu, Launch campaign Alexander Ingham Brooke

The graphic language used across the brand has its foundation in sacred geometry, while the art direction – including for the launch video – uses conceptual photography to elevate recognisable objects, showing them in a new light. Each session is understood like a music single (one part of a broader project) with poetic titles to draw users’ attention and appeal to their imaginations. To create an ambient mood, like that experienced in an in-person class, the session starts with a looped 3D animation that induces a light trance-like state.

Creative direction / Design / Identity

An independent kombucha brewer based in Shanghai, What A Day knowingly picked a name that can be read in two ways. The idea? Whether it’s a great day or an awful one, this kombucha is there to improve your experience.

Photographer @alyzondra

The double-disc logo is a simple, straightforward play on the duality of the brand’s name – both tonally and in the doodle-like faces, one happy, one sad. This is combined with a label inspired by the foam netting used to individually package delicate fruits, a hint that this drink contains produce that’s organic, precious and carefully farmed.

Together, the street-style logo, playful art direction and the punchy coloured foam design, look to appeal to a younger generation of consumers.

Design / Identity

British-Japanese author Erin Niimi Longhurst’s work provides a view of Eastern culture, as seen from the West, and focuses on the Japanese art of compassion and contentment. Her dual heritage influenced the direction taken in designing a brand identity.

 

Bespoke Kanji design and edo komon – a traditional Japanese pattern made with countless tiny dots – were blended with principles from Herbert Bayer’s Bauhaus typeface; the round features and minimum angles lend the typeface a cheerful and restful feeling that aligns with the writer’s subject matter. To match this and create a cohesive brand language, the sharp angles were removed from the joints of the typeface for the English script. The logo itself uses both typefaces, creating a visual connection between the two languages and their respective cultures.

A pale orange tone was chosen as a nod to chiyogami, a type of hand-screenprinted paper that originates in Japan; its single colour range often features soft and harmonious shades. The complementary colour was also derived from this research – it’s based on the hue of raw washi paper before it’s dyed.

Art direction

Actress Eva Green embraces broad characters and personas, so this series – shot remotely during the Coronavirus pandemic – explored how she adapts and finds liberation through character development.

Directed to draw inspiration from Cindy Sherman’s Untitled series (Murder Mystery and Bus Driver, 1976), Green took a series of self-portraits using her iPhone.

Soho House House Notes, May 2020. Photographer Eva Green; Collage Miriam Tölke – gallery Bildhalle

Art direction / Design

An alcoholic drink or two can endow our experience of the world around us with a slightly hallucinatory quality, effectively transporting us to another dimension. 

These five evocative designs for Cecconi’s, which incorporate iconic Venetian landmarks to reference the restaurant’s roots, reinforce that sensation by taking inspiration from the work of Italian Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico’s Metaphysical Town Square series.

Illustrator Charlotte Taylor

Logo design

Ketley Miller Joels, a solicitors firm in London’s Marylebone.

The logo draws upon the partners’ long-term collaboration; each of the initials supports another, creating a solidarity and connection between the individual (and reduced) forms.

Creative direction Micha Weidmann

Art direction / styling

A nod to Irving Penn’s still-life photographs, the campaign aims to present and celebrate the cutlery set in a playful, timeless fashion.

Soho House Stonewashed Cutlery. Photographer Tina Hillier

Art direction / Design / Identity

The first opening in the Far East, Soho House Hong Kong portrays an exotic fantasy. Referencing colonial typography and Wong Kar-Wai’s cinematographic style, every detail is considered and intentional; every asset – from signage to photography, illustration to moving images – produced in close collaboration with local talent.

Film Max Wu – the 11th film; Photographer Amanda Kho, Jocelyn Tam, Billy Ha; Calligraphy Wei-Hang Tseng; Global social media manager Rachael Cooney; Assistant content editor Charlotte Harding; Creative & content director Belinda White

Art direction

Inspired by the sensitively lit images of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Flowers series, the campaign sees hero pieces framed by geometric platforms and cast in summery shadows – a study of time and space.

William & Son, Spring summer 2014. Photographer Dan Tobin Smith; Stylist Sam Logan; Creative direction Material Organisation

Art direction / Commission

Article Magazine’s regular feature, The Circular Project spotlights artists whose work features a circle. Each issue sees a new guest artist presenting ten such works throughout the magazine.

1 Leon Chew; 3 Daniel Freytag; 4 Lucy McLauchlan; 5 Vaughan Oliver; 6 Andy Goldsworthy; 7 Supermundane (Rob Lowe); 8/9 Martin Parr; 10 Heidi Locher

Design / Identity

Bridge Cottage Bistro, an artisan restaurant in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

The Barcelona typeface by Ed Benguiat is chosen for the logo, reflecting the bistro’s intentions: a casual dining experience with delicate plating.

Art direction / Design / Identity

A biannual celebration of British output, Article Magazine considers themes including design, lifestyle and culture, from an independent, individual point of view. 

Its timeless identity utilises a bespoke-cut logotype by Colophon called Article – a modernised version of VandenKeere (c.1570). Longevity and reinvention is inferred by the four-dot cover motif, an abstraction of the traditional button’s silhouette, while Radim Peško’s Agipo typeface (used throughout) brings a modern quirk to the pages.

15 Collaboration with G.F. Smith; 21 Tate Modern’s extension in built. Creative director and fashion director Kenny Ho; Feature editor John-Michael O’Sullivan; Digital partner Campbell Hay

Design / Identity

Quadraturin is a film adaptation of a short story by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, set in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. The choice of contrasting type sizes and the inclusion of the Russian alphabet are informed by narrative details, such as the protagonist’s experiences the transformation of his shoe box-sized home to something much grander.

© 2017 Electric Blue Films & Cassiopeia Pictures; Director Laura Hypponen

Design

With a history dating back to 1706, Twinings is an English manufacturer specialising in tea blends. The gift range packaging reinforces this heritage, making a feature of the portico seen on the company’s London flagship store at 216 The Strand, (which also happens to be the oldest tea shop in London).

Creative direction Micha Weidmann

Design / Identity

Post is an independent boutique in Stoke Newington, London.

Playing on its name – which has associations with time, visual displays and mail – led to researching the history of postmarks. The logo design is intended to act as the official stamp of the shop’s well-crafted, considered curation.

Design / Identity

The Collector (2016) is a short film by Laura Hypponen, inspired by Gearbox Records’ jazz archive.

Following on from the director’s own inspiration, Bande à Part (1964), the design is based on recognisable 1960s style – a bold white san-serif typeface set against the image.

Director Laura Hypponen; Starring Zoë Grisedale

Design

Hus Gallery, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2010, has locations in London and Copenhagen. The brochure design, tailored to each exhibition, has a flexible format that can be manipulated to best reflect the artwork on display. Bold typography was later introduced for use within collateral for group exhibitions at the gallery.

1/3 Space Age, Ophelia Finke, Konrad Wyrebek, Santiago Taccetti & Nathan Green; 4/5 The Back of Beyond, Adam Bainbridge, Sam Irons & Neil Raitt; 6-9 Floating Perspectives, Seung Ah Paik; 10/11 Afterimage, Purdey Fitzherbert; 12/13 Casting the Line, Howard Tangye

Art direction / Logo design

Rosebank is a residential development in Acton, London, spearheaded by Family Mosaic housing association. The logo and the opening campaign depict the interior of one of the development’s tranquil, contemporary residences, with the house’s wood-clad exterior referenced via wooden screens in the set design. 

Photographer Ben Anders; Set designer & stylist Hannah Bort; Creative direction Campbell Hay

Logo design

Tuckshop, an under-railway café located in Shoreditch, East London.

The hand-written logo is designed to draw comparisons with the venue’s namesake – a casual shop selling food and drink treats on school premises. The typeface is light-hearted, ambiguous (is it a tuckshop or a luckshop?) and perhaps even a little naughty.

Design

Made in Ratio, is a contemporary furniture and lighting studio based in London, which embraces experimental processes and works alongside some of the finest craftspeople in Europe.

Each catalogue incorporates smaller leaves detailing each design’s inspiration, with the purpose of walking or guiding buyers through the designer’s creative mind.

Art direction

A magazine, an internal publication by British multinational retailers, Arcadia Group.

Katherine Hepburn sported high-waisted slacks, suit jackets and button-down shirts as early as the 1930s. Exploring this kind of androgynous fashion, the campaign shapes a different image of the womenswear brands under the Arcadia umbrella.

A Magazine by Arcadia, Issue 12, pre-fall 2015. Photographer Mattias Björklund; Stylist Marie-Louise von Haselberg; Publisher Fitzgerald Shurey Tarbuck

Art direction / styling

Edit of still life photography.

1/3 The Best Possible Taste, Home Brew, Article Magazine Issue 10. Photographer Joakim Blockström, Stylist Andrea Mongenie; 4 Just My Type, Article Magazine Issue 3. Photographer Owen Heard

Design / Identity

JALIÉ et PONGA is an independent fashion label. Its clothing is designed to be worn every day, without looking everyday; the emphasis is on design details, be it an interesting cut or an unexpected fabric. The logo is crafted to fit this ethos, with a design based on a mono-spaced typeface that implies the creative balance of the two founders’ partnership.

Photographer Raymond Tan

[email protected]
+44 (0)7964 684144
@rosytsai

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Rosy Tsai is a creative director and graphic designer who has more than 10 years’ experience working for agencies as well as high-profile and independent brands. Specialising in branding, art direction and typography, her work has spanned many industries and sectors, including fashion, art, hospitality and print publishing. 

Applying a keen eye for detail, and drawing on her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre, Rosy’s work is often emotive and driven by storytelling. 

The co-founder of Article Magazine, alongside fashion director Kenny Ho, Rosy was also the Group Head of Design at Soho House until 2020.

Rosy lives and works in London, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.