“Design always needs a contrarian”: Yutong Hu opts for contradiction over consensus

Yutong hopes people say “Woo-Hu” when they see her work – and clearly people do. After graduating in Design at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, she was named one of the best New Visual Artists by Print. “If you don’t know where Zhenjiang is, it’s okay,” says Yutong Hu, the New York-based designer. “Because even most Chinese people have never heard it. I used to hate to say where I was from, but it gave me a chance to create the rebranding of ZhenJiang Vinegar.”

“I’ve been drawn to localised and sustainability-driven design which is rooted in specific cultures, habits, materials,” says Yutong. “Because in an earlier commercial project I worked under tight timelines, and there were always unresolved moments and elements I wished I had more time to develop." Frustrated by the way that brand design looks so polished in the “global template”, Yutong regards herself a bit more rebellious. “My brain tends to move in the opposite direction,” says Yutong. "Design always needs a contrarian to find energy in contradiction over consensus."

In her eclectic print work, awkwardness and a sense of ‘offness’ is at the center. When Yutong designs inside of InDesign, she pushes text right against the margins, rarely uses grids, and leads with impulse. In her project Air Max for Pace Book Design, Yutong used a sewing machine to create blind contour drawings – which looks just as reckless as you’d expect. With odd fitting pages and gnarly binding, it’s maximalist and toothy.

In another work called Irony Man, Yutong pays tribute to photographer Michael Northup by accommodating his surreal images inside of a book with minimal typographic intervention, opting for loose, unbound pages that encourage freeform interactions. “I don’t want readers to immediately know what the next page will look like. I like building in small surprises, or even moments of confusion, where visual balance is intentionally disrupted,” says Yutong. “That tension makes the design feel more alive to me.”