The best advice that Zhenyuan Shi, Product Designer and Multidisciplinary Artist, has ever heard is, “You have to execute on the bad ideas so you can get to the good ideas.” They caution aspiring designers about getting stuck on perfection. “Don’t worry about your work not looking perfect or if you don’t have the perfect idea for a project,” Shi says. “The more designs you work on, the easier it will be to find inspiration.”

Shi comes from Shanghai, a vibrant and diverse city and culture, and they were exposed to many different art forms and genres from a young age. “I’m really into painting, drawing, and printmaking, aside from design,” they say. “In my design practice, I often bring fine-art elements into my work.” 

As a child, Shi had a passion for the written word and originally wanted to be a film director or write screen plays. “I went to film school for my undergrad,” they say. “When I was at school, there were a ton of short film productions all the time, and people were always looking for folks to design movie posters for their films. I was trying to learn PhotoShop then, so I started designing movie posters for people. Doing that led me to discover my passion for design.” 

While Shi took some graphic design classes at their university, they are also self-taught. “I read a lot of graphic design books,” they say. “I could create a portfolio to apply to design graduate schools by graduation. Eventually, I was able to get into the Design & Technology program at Parsons, which opened up a path for me to pursue a career as a designer.”