My work explores how typography evolves through motion and 3D to bridge cultures beyond language.
Poly.Rhythm
by Polly (Zixuan) Zhang
Awards
TDC 69 Young Ones | Winner D&AD New Blood 2023 | Yellow Pencil ADC Young Ones | Merit Design Education Awards
Nodes
Summa Technologiae (2022–2024)
Visual identity and book design made for Summa Technologiae, a symposium hosted by The New Museum. The symposium explores the intersection of technology, speculative design, and science fiction. Taking inspiration from Stanisław Lem’s visionary work, this event examines how contemporary technological advancements align with, or diverge from, his predictions. Through panels, exhibitions, and immersive installations, artists, designers, and theorists interrogate the limits of innovation, questioning: when does technology become science fiction? And when does science fiction become reality? Open to the public, Summa Technologiae invites audiences to engage with the future as it unfolds.
Main Visual (motion)
The main visual is composed of a staircase-like index—an index of sci-fi terminology coined by authors in various works of science fiction. As the index progresses alphabetically, each new letter shifts the paragraph further to the right, creating a cascading, stair-step effect.
When the explanations of these terms are hidden, the terms fade in color, while the circular markers preceding each term become more prominent, making the entire layout resemble a star map.
Promo
In the promotional post, the text following each circle will display information about the event. Key details such as the time, location, and subtitle will be highlighted to enhance readability.
Panel Info
Date: October 25-27, 2024
Location: The New Museum
Panel Themes:
- From Speculation to Reality: Technologies That Became Sci-Fi (and Vice Versa)
- Designing for the Unknown: Speculative Design and Its Role in Shaping the Future
- Unnatural Selection: Simulated Worlds and Post-Human Design
- Digital Bodies: The Intersection of Human Experience and Technological Interface
- Lem’s Ask: The Death of Art in a Digital Age
Book Design
The book Summa Technologiae presents Stanisław Lem’s essay collection of the same name alongside a sci-fi terminology index, juxtaposed on each spread side by side. The cover follows the same design treatment as the main visual, with all definitions from the first page of the index removed, leaving only the terms and circles.
This book is designed to inspire participants, sparking imagination and potentially leading to more meaningful discussions and creative works.
Typography in Action: a D&AD winner campaign and website design powered by @GoogleFonts.
Having an Asian name usually means one must experience a sense of cultural tension, alienation, and sometimes discrimination in the western society. Anglicizing an Asian name can be brutal as the rhythms, forms, and meanings are severed in the process.
In this project, we launch a campaign to resist the violence of treating Chinese names carelessly and to embrace the uniqueness of Chinese characters—we consider them as a combination of a painting and a melody. This digital platform allows people to learn the pronunciations and to generate motion posters which they can use to celebrate their identities.
Having an Asian name usually means one must experience a sense of cultural tension, alienation, and sometimes discrimination in the western society. Anglicizing an Asian name can be brutal as the rhythms, forms, and meanings are severed in the process.
In this project, we launch a campaign to resist the violence of treating Chinese names carelessly and to embrace the uniqueness of Chinese characters—we consider them as a combination of a painting and a melody. This digital platform allows people to learn the pronunciations and to generate motion posters which they can use to celebrate their identities.
- D&AD New Blood 2023 | Yellow Pencil
Watch video on D&AD
Motion Poster
This motion poster series as is an attempt to raise awareness about what is lost in the process of anglicizing a Chinese name by creatively extruding Chinese characters, giving it depth to present its tone and rhythm like music notes.
We created a system to visualize the pronunciation of Chinese family names, whose features can be generalized into three categories:
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Initials
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Vowels
- Pitches
The movement of he strokes (corresponding to the shapes on the right side of the poster where the strings are) represents how the viewer reads this Chinese character.
To Scry (2022-23)
Moving letters: A TDC69-winning work that begins with type design, extends into 3D space, and comes to life through motion.
TDC 69 Young Ones | Winner
ADC Young Ones | Merit
ADC Young Ones | Merit
This project explores how ancestral storytelling ignites our imagination and serves as a platform for re-enchantment. In form, it integrates participatory design, type design, and motion design. It is also a literary experiment, an architecture of poetry within a 3D space where no fixed reading path exists, allowing meaning to emerge through collective imagination.
Twenty-six participants contributed to shaping the Hanging Garden of their imagination after listening to the story of this historical space. Their reflections, how they felt and how they envisioned interacting with this imagined space, became the very text that fills the 3D environment.
The Zine (Participatory Design)
To begin, I designed a cultural probe: I recited the story of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in three different versions based on historical texts. Participants were asked to choose whichever version they believed (or none at all) and then visualize their interpretation through drawing. After completing their sketches, I interviewed them with the following questions:
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How would you like to interact with this imagined place?
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What would you do there?
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What emotions or thoughts does it evoke?
A total of 26 people participated in this cultural probe. I compiled their drawings into a zine to showcase the results. The Hanging Gardens were chosen because they are a mythical structure with no archaeological evidence, existing only in historical records. This means that every interpretation is equally valid—there is no definitive answer.
Type Design
Then, I designed a script-based monolinear font with the following constraints:
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It should evoke the sensation of stories unfolding.
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It needs to function effectively in 3D space.
3D&Motion Design
I incorporated elements from participants’ drawings to create a virtual space where the skeletal structure of the mythical building is entirely composed of words. These sentences, drawn from participants’ interview responses, are curated based on their responses. The texts are presented in ToScry Type.
There is a search box on the top left corner of the interface. By searching the key words that represents emotions or actions, the virtual space turns around, zooms in and show you where the words are located.
Visual identity, logo design and cover art for a musician’s album Future Rococo.
He is a classically trained cellist and electronic musician. In this album, he explores the fusion of classical music’s dynamics and textures with electronic production, creating a sound that feels both modern and exquisitely expressive, preserving the richness of classical tradition in a contemporary context.
In the album cover, behind the symmetrically placed logo, is a waveform of an important motif from the musician's work. I rotated and lathed it, applying a Limestone texture to give it the appearance of a classical architectural material, while maintaining an uncanny, organic form.
He is a classically trained cellist and electronic musician. In this album, he explores the fusion of classical music’s dynamics and textures with electronic production, creating a sound that feels both modern and exquisitely expressive, preserving the richness of classical tradition in a contemporary context.
In the album cover, behind the symmetrically placed logo, is a waveform of an important motif from the musician's work. I rotated and lathed it, applying a Limestone texture to give it the appearance of a classical architectural material, while maintaining an uncanny, organic form.
Logo Design
I drew inspiration from the shape of the F-holes on a cello and the form of triplet, which are frequently used in the musician’s work and creates a syncopated effect, resulting in a unique sense of rhythmic displacement. Using a script typeface as the base, I incorporated the musician’s stage name into the design, achieving a style with a classical aesthetic.
06
Name Matters (2024)
A Duolingo-powered campaign that celebrates names across languages through an interactive ID card, revealing the meanings behind them.
Illustration @Kefan
Illustration @Kefan
Design Challenge by DUOLINGO
Scroll to see all cards
Scroll to see full user journey
Scroll to see Zoom Backgrounds
07
I Think My Plants Can Talk (2024)
This fashion short film tells the story of a scientist searching for the sounds of plants, a gardener, and a journalist—each embarking on their own journey into nature, seeking to uncover the language of plants. For the title’s type design, I exaggerated each letter to an extreme, capturing the diverse personalities and vitality of plants.
I run a channel dedicated to music visualization and education, where I create all the visuals and motion design.
We now have
100K+ followers across Chinese social media
Several videos with 1M+ views
Several videos with 1M+ views
©2025 Poly.Rhythm
Everything is about rhythm.