Now that Liu Ching-wei has won prestigious Red Dot Awards three years in a row, lots of people in the design community are asking: Where did this young graphic designer come from? Was he trained in graphic design from a young age? Where did he go to school?

Liu Ching-wei has shot to success in his young career with three consecutive Red Dot Award wins. Liu has always insisted on being different from everyone else.

Born with talent

Contrary to expectations, it turns out that Liu, who is currently doing postgraduate studies in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Asia University, wasn’t on the graphic design career track from early on, and has never attended professional-level fine art courses. Born into a military family in Kao­hsiung’s Zuo­ying District, Liu has loved drawing since he was a small boy, but his talent went unrecognized for a long time.

Liu laughingly recalls some of the trouble he got into as a boy: “I remember how, when I was a kid, I’d often draw pictures of undersea life all over the walls of our house, and when I ran out of space on our own walls I’d continue drawing on the neighbors’ walls. And at school I’d draw in my textbooks. When I drew, I’d really concentrate, but when I finished I’d always get yelled at.” The only class where he remembers being praised by his teachers was art class.

After graduating from junior high school, Liu enrolled per his parents’ preference in the ­Chung ­Cheng Armed Forces Preparatory School. During his time at ­Chung ­Cheng, Liu most looked forward to the twice-weekly art classes. He would spend an entire semester working on a single drawing, which brought temporary respite from the stress of military academy discipline. “If they hadn’t had a deadline for handing things in, I think I could have worked indefinitely on a single drawing.”

The drawing he handed in to the teacher at the end of one semester was a surrealistic depiction of a banquet, with all sorts of guests showing life in many different manifestations. The art teacher examined the work in stunned silence for a good while before asking Liu: “With this kind of talent for illustration, what are you doing enrolled at a military academy?”

The teacher’s comment set the wheels turning in Liu’s mind. He got to thinking that if he was ever going to get seriously involved in illustration, then he would have to make a decision soon.

For his university graduation project, Liu executed an animated work in a surrealist style, focusing on the themes of environmental protection and US beef.

Changing direction

And so Liu decided to drop out of the military academy. Without any formal training in illustration, he had to enroll in an ordinary high school. But when registering for his university entrance exam, in the section of the registration form where students are asked to indicate the departments in which they hope to enroll, he checked only the boxes for design-related departments. He gained a place at Asia University to study visual communication design.

“I joined the school newspaper when I was in high school, and was really excited the first time I got involved with graphic design. I spent a long time getting familiar with it.” Despite his lack of resources, Liu still found ways to gradually work his way into the things he loved to do.

At university, Liu fell in love with surrealist style, and for his graduation project turned in an animated work focusing on the themes of environmental protection and US beef. While working on his project, Liu discovered the sort of artist he was to be.

“I came to realize that what I cared about most in my work is being different from others,” says Liu, who adds that he stayed on campus nearly non-stop for seven or eight months to work on his graduation project. He studied actual designs executed in various media and made a list of all the different topics he wanted to cover. By the time he completed his project, Liu had already honed his skills to the point where he was ready to start accepting freelance design jobs.

After finishing his military service, Liu entered graduate school at his alma mater and began to take on freelance design projects. He took anything that came his way, designing product catalogs for industrial manufacturers and producing the photography for a fashion-brand publicity campaign, to name just two examples. He even did the camera work himself. Customers browbeat him and demanded discounts, but he always put his nose to the grindstone and completed the work.

For his university graduation project, Liu executed an animated work in a surrealist style, focusing on the themes of environmental protection and US beef.

No farming out

Says Liu: “There’s one point that I’m a stickler on. I insist on finishing with my own hand any visual imagery of my own creation.” Armed with this attitude, Liu has continually sharpened his skills. Two years ago, working in collaboration with Logan Hsu, he took the latter’s story about a little bag and put it to a series of illustrations. In the story, a bag that’s been abandoned by its owner goes out in search of its self-worth and identity.

In an odd coincidence, the bag’s story resonates with the story of how Liu himself came to be involved in graphic design, which is why it struck a chord with him.

To depict the bag’s world, Liu executed illustrations of all sorts of things—people, vehicles, the bag itself, a table—in a unique style that is both lifelike and surreal at the same time. He first did the illustrations by hand, then used a computer to fill in the colors, achieving scenes with a feeling of depth.

Unlike ordinary illustrations, which invariably put the main subject in prominent focus, the little bag is minimized. Upon careful perusal of the illustrations, one will discover lots of Chinese characters with an unmistakable Taiwanese connection, such as place names like “Kao­hsiung” and “Nei­wan.” Many such elements came from Liu’s memories of childhood in Kao­hsiung, and he also fished around among old photos of Taiwan to come up with ideas.

An illustration from The Bag.

First Taiwanese winner in 15 years

It was actually a bout of frustration with his work on The Bag that prompted Liu to enter the Japanese Illustration Award competition.

Because the collaboration process was not going smoothly, Liu worried at one point that the project might be called off. Hoping for some other way to get the work before viewers, he decided to enter it into the contest. He never imagined that he would win big right off the bat, but the Japanese judges were effusive in their praise, exclaiming: “It has an overwhelming sense of presence.”

Then a food manufacturer noticed the strikingly rich surrealistic visual style of his graduation project and hired him to design the packaging for a mullet roe gift pack.

Liu started by studying up on the history of mullet roe and how it’s produced. He selected black as the color of the box, and had it embossed with the image of a mullet in gold foil. This color combination was a clever allusion to the fact that mullet roes are commonly referred to in Taiwan as “black gold.” The shape of the box mimicked the curved lines of a fish, while the box itself was presented in a fishnet bag. Liu actually arranged for a maker of basketball nets to craft the net bag. And he placed Chinese and English text on the box in such a way as to resolve aesthetic problems associated with the curved lines of the box. The client was deeply impressed with the way Liu rolled up his sleeves and personally took care of all the details.

After taking a Red Dot Award for Wild Mullet Catch, Liu followed up soon after with a total of nine awards won in Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Chicago, New York, Louisville, London, and Italy.

To design this packaging for a mullet roe gift pack, Liu Ching-wei visited the food plant where the product is made to understand the manufacturing process. He has always insisted on finishing his own designs with his own hand. The client was deeply impressed by his dedication.

International recognition

Liu always goes the extra mile to turn out good designs, personally visiting his clients’ production facilities when necessary. He recently designed the packaging for Tea Fans, an upmarket tea grown in Taiwan. To highlight the product’s origin, he decorated the package with images of the Taiwan barbet, the Formosan black bear, and the Tai­pei green tree frog—all endemic species of Taiwan. In the meantime, the “ladder” design of the tea bag itself routes the boiling water in a way that brings out the fragrance of the tea. This design once again garnered Liu a Red Dot Award.

Liu says that the Red Dot organizers place great stress on a work’s cultural elements, and feel that a work which is not local is not international, either. This is very much in line with his own thinking, for he always wants to include Taiwanese elements in his designs.

Liu chuckles that his spirit is already old, so he gets excited when he’s able to use his design projects to come in contact with Taiwan’s culture and history. “Actually, what I most enjoy is the process of creation,” which is why one always finds Taiwanese elements present within his Western-style drawings.

And so it is that dropping out of the military academy led Liu to the international stage. Illustration and graphic design have become his way of communicating with society; indeed, they testify to another meaning for his existence. Liu says he will always illustrate. Winning awards is a great honor, to be sure, but after the awards, a long road still awaits. He hopes that his creative ability will continue to receive international attention.

To design this packaging for a mullet roe gift pack, Liu Ching-wei visited the food plant where the product is made to understand the manufacturing process. He has always insisted on finishing his own designs with his own hand. The client was deeply impressed by his dedication.

“I think I’ll keep on illustrating,” says Liu, for whom illustration is now an integral part of his life, and a way of communicating with society.

Liu’s visual theme design for the Syntrend Family Film Festival at Taipei’s Syntrend shopping center incorporates elements that appeal to children, such as elephants, eagles and astronauts.