The Unexpected
Art Direction, Photography, Publication
2025-2026
BACKGROUNDThe Unexpected shows a series of campaigns that challenges and encourages people to create their own stories for celebrations. The campaigns consist of the following.
CONCEPT
01 / A Solo Birthday
As we get older, we might not be as excited to celebrate our own birthdays. Whether studying at school, working full-time, looking for a job, or constantly thinking about our present and future, we might be feeling pressured to carry more responsibilities and become a bit wiser. Instead of baking or running out to get a cake after a long day, we can easily find ingredients at home to create a birthday cake. This campaign challenges what is identified as a birthday cake.
02 / The Comfortable Wedding
Weddings can get luxurious. Sometimes it shows the financial comfort that one has. But instead of going through the pressure to plan a sophisticated wedding, what if a wedding is simply just the couple out in nature wearing comfortable attire of pajamas, slippers, and sleeping masks? There is no one else to impress, but it is simply a day for the couple to make a promise to one another, relax, eat a morning buffet, and have fun.
03 / A Cinematic Funeral
We usually associate a funeral with grief and devastation. But what if it becomes more of an observance of one’s life in the form of a film? All attendees would be sharing photos and videos of the one that they once did life with, which would be formulated into a film to be projected onto the exterior wall of the church. For this viewing experience, all attendees would eat some popcorn and drink a glass of soda while holding a white flower as a gesture of commemoration.
PROJECTStudent (MFA / Thesis)
Mentors: Jennifer Cole Phillips, Ellen Lupton, Jeff Glendenning, Chen Luo
NOTEFor the publication work in “A Cinematic Funeral”, some Bible verses from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible are included.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
01 / A Solo Birthday
02 / The Comfortable Wedding
03 / A Cinematic Funeral