Christie Wu is a concept-driven digital designer working at the intersection of culture, design, and technology. Her work emphasizes playful interactions, innovative ideas, and unexpected concepts, aiming to create joy through engaging visual stories. Her personal projects include Wandering Wombs and the Mumbai Gallery Association website. At DEPT®, she has designed for Twitch, eBay, Nordstrom, and Ariana Grande Fragrances, winning a Shorty Gold Award for her work on Twitch Social x TwitchCon in the Live Events Coverage category.
What inspired you to transition from math and physics to art and design?
I have always loved math and consider many of my design methodologies and practices to be quite “mathematical.” However, despite my interests in mathematics and physics, I was not inspired by the career paths available in those fields. With no regrets, the STEM education I received motivated me to dive into creative technology and pursue science-oriented projects.
How does your background in Taiwan and Los Angeles shape your creative process?
Growing up in Taiwan has made me bold and unafraid to break design conventions. I draw much of my inspiration from the graphics I was surrounded by as a child—often considered "ugly" by today's standards, with overloaded information, overly-saturated colors, and dramatic imagery. Yet, alongside the visual chaos, Taiwan also has a rich reading culture, with beautiful bookstores on nearly every corner of Taipei. Taiwanese book cover designs, though underrated, showcase some of the most avant-garde typography, merging traditional Chinese and Western graphic design principles. Inheriting this maximalist, playful, and rule-breaking spirit, my work is deeply rooted in my cultural background.
Can you describe the core values of your work and what drives your creative concepts?
I tend to dive deep into research when I find a topic or question, which is often inspired by my everyday anxieties—menstrual health, gut health, cryptocurrency, etc. As a multidisciplinary designer, I believe design serves purposes beyond beautiful graphics, functional UI, and objects that generate commercial value. It can be used to illuminate ideas that are hard to explain with just words and imagery.
My curiosity about NFTs inspired me to create a board game that helps players learn about NFTs and the act of minting them; my microbiome research led me to design a comic strip about a superhero who can manipulate people’s gut health; last but not least, my frustration with menstrual health inspired me and a friend to create an online resource hub that helps menstruating individuals learn more about their bodies and the social and historical implications of menstruation. I aspire to create work that encourages people to perceive and meditate on various topics differently.
What’s your most memorable project, and why?
"Welcome to Slyder Festival" has been the most memorable project I created in grad school. It was inspired by the narrative of the Fyre Festival and discourse around social media, where I live-streamed a music festival on Animal Crossing that didn't happen. The project helped me find my design voice as I realized how to turn my insights and research of cultural phenomena into a design project that is conceptual but approachable due to its wild and fun nature. A sense of humor has always been a general theme in my work. Even though the concepts and research behind my work are often serious, the delivery does not have to be.
