2007 | NETWORK FEVER (ABRIDGED) | PERSONAL WORK

Emerging Talent No. 9: Leslie Kwok
“Leslie Kwok deals with the raw materials—the visual vocabulary and methods—of information design,” says Alice Twemlow, chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA program in Design Criticism. “She looks for ways to complicate and humanize the links between nodes in diagrams and to introduce fun and fiction to the visualization of abstract concepts like social networks. And she does so with the wit, elegance and panache of someone completely at ease with the tools of graphic design.”

Kwok’s work includes books, posters, identities, packaging, short films and interactive exhibitions. She has an affinity for design that tells stories in unexpected ways. “Perhaps the common denominator in most of my work is a sense of an internal logic that may not make sense right away, but upon looking at it and experiencing it, becomes more apparent,” Kwok says. “I think my work may look quite simple at first, because the graphic choices that I make are often pretty straightforward. But then you realize there’s a more substantial reason—or meaning—behind why I did what I did.” Through the process of research and analysis, which often involves writing about her ideas before visualizing them, Kwok arrives at form. “The answer to a design problem, as I’ve learned, is never handed to you. So the solution should be informed by the design process and making, and through that, the form can be tweaked and changed accordingly until everything feels right.” Kwok received a BA in Art from Yale University and, recently, an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She was born in Honolulu and raised in Hong Kong. Now an independent, in the past she has worked with Local Projects, Giampietro+Smith, Oscar de la Renta and Ogilvy & Mather/OgilvyONE Worldwide.

Her desire is to “make more self-initiated work that allows people to come together—make the design objective of the piece a reason for people to come together and do something or make something. Its by-product will inevitably be not only an experience, but a memory.” Kwok’s work frequently deals with relationships and connections between people. “I’m drawn to gathering content from the audience itself,” she explains. “It goes back to being able to let viewers relate: It’s that inner voyeur in each of us that likes to know what others think or feel because it makes our increasingly complex world feel a little more intimate.”

Kwok evokes emotion and empathy, allowing everyone—not just designers—to engage with her work. “Infographics can often be cold and sterile,” says the designer Jon Sueda. “However, Leslie makes this work personal somehow, creating strangely familiar entry points to complex ideas. I think she’ll … make useful work that will be important to people outside of ‘graphic design.’”
www.lesliekwok.info