Visual Communication

Sammi Yip

I am a multidisciplinary designer, and my work often explores themes of memory, identity and cultural belonging, drawing from my Hong Kong-Irish background. My work is driven by the goal of creating meaningful emotional resonance and inviting viewers to feel a deeper connection to the subject. I approach my projects by thinking through making and experimenting with materials to develop intimate, reflective concepts. As a designer I value emotional depth and subtle storytelling. I hope to continue creating work that resonates with people on a personal and emotional level.  

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The Soundtrack of Home

This project explores the feeling of being caught between two places – Hong Kong and Dublin. Using recreated kitchen sounds, still images, interviews and poetry, to investigate how everyday sounds evoke memories of distant places. The kitchen is an intimate space where sound acts as a bridge between homes, reflecting on the presence and absence. The project is inspired by the concept of saudade which is the feeling of longing or yearning for something that does not and probably cannot exist. The audio-visual questions whether home is a place, a person or something that only exists in memory. It explores how memory lingers even when physically distant. The narrative is supported by a conversation with my mother and a poem which invites the audience to reflect and question their own relationship with memory, sound and home. 

Balance

Balance is a delicate and interactive publication that explores the concept of yin and yang in Traditional Chinese medicine through food. Drawing from my Hong Kong-Irish background, I used family recipes and anecdotes to make this concept approachable and relatable to a modern western audience unfamiliar with them. The book runs in both ways with yang (heating) foods on one side and yin (cooling) foods on the other, and the neutral foods in the centre folds out to symbolise maintaining balance. Balance invites the reader to think of food not just about flavours or aesthetics but as a form of care. It encourages reader to appreicate how balance in the diet based on the yin and yang concept can promote well-being and view Chinese and Western approaches to health as a complementary thing as they can co-exist like yin and yang.