Jo Zixuan

Seriously, Not So Serious

A design practice rooted in intuition, self-care, and the slow labor of craft

(Close)
Jo Zixuan (
周子璇
) is a Chinese-American graphic designer and illustrator, currently based in New York City. Having graduated from SVA with a BFA in illustration and RISD with an MFA in Graphic Design, Jo specializes in visual storytelling, bi-scriptual typography, and expressive systems. Her concept- and research-driven process takes form in visual identities, books, spaces, and websites. She maintains a teaching practice through adjunct teaching, mentorship and
Illustration Roundtable.
‍
CLIENTS
The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, NPR, Columbia Global Report, Medium, NBC, PLANSPONSOR, NYT for KIDS China, The Atlantic, Narratively, Toggl, Intel, FCB Inferno, Dotdash, The Balance, Thought Co., Lifewire, TripSavvy, The Spruce,
三联《少年》
,
新世相


FEATURES
It's Nice That, Groundooh Art, Hiiibrand

AWARDS
2022 - Society of Illustrators 65 Annual
2021 - Communication Arts 63 Winner
2020 - Hiiibrand Jury Award
2020 - American Illustration 39 Winner
2020 - Society of Illustrators Annual
2019 - Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition Finalist
2019 - 3 x 3 International Illustration Award Merit Winner
2019 - The Batsford Prize International Category Shortlisted
2018 - Speedball New Impressions winner, Intaglio/Etching Second Place

EXHIBITIONS
2023 - eMotion, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven
2023 - Sino-German Illustration Exhibition, HISMOON gallery, Suzhou
2021 - NO SAMPLE Risograph Exhibition, Fujian
2021 - NO SAMPLE Risograph Exhibition, Xi'an
2019 - Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship, New York
2019 - Speedball National Printmaking Showcase, Davis Gallery, Sawtooth, NC
2018 - The Haves and Have-Nots, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York 2018 - Constellations, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York
2018 - HOPE Competition, SVA Westside Project Space, New York

COLOPHON
Web design
Jo Zixuan

Typeface
Authentic Sans by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong
‍Situated Sans by Thea Kim
‍

Seriously, Not So Serious

A design practice rooted in intuition, self-care, and the slow labor of craft

Category

Print

Year

2025

Type

Academic Publication

Spec

6.5" x 8.7"
166 x 220mm
93 pages
Soft Cover Perfect Bound

Seriously, Not So Serious is a bi-scriptual publication with Simplified Chinese and English taking equal presence. As a graphic design thesis compendium produced in Rhode Island School of Design, it includes original essays regarding the designer’s research questions, key terms, and critical positions.
The compendium is a guided process to specify our positionality as designers and situate our practice within the creative dialogues of the wider culture production. By responding to the writing prompts of research questions, key terms, and critical positions, it pushes us to make self-definitions and practice design authorship.
By designing bilingual content, I hope to encourage designers who read multiple languages to bring functional multilingual work into the increasingly globalized and homogenized visual scene, instead of treating foreign scripts as decorative. Multilingual design is more common in European publishing, where cultures flow more fluidly across borders. Multi-script design, however, introduces deeper typographic challenges, particularly for non-Latin scripts that remain poorly served by digital typesetting tools. Many designers avoid it for this reason.