Faculty of Design

Advertising

Kaiying Zhang

Eastside Festival

Eastside Festival is a storytelling-driven pop-up event designed for Gen Z East Asians navigating cultural duality and identity formation. The festival offers a platform for young people to explore who they are, outside of stereotypes, timelines, and social expectations. From initial research and interviews to branding, experience design, and public-facing applications, the project reflects a layered understanding of in-betweenness, resistance, and care.The visual identity reimagines familiar East Asian symbols—like kites, bowls, and lanterns—into a modular and flexible system. Rooted in the idea of cultural in-betweenness, the design embraces contrast and layering to reflect how identity can be both inherited and redefined. Applied across OOH formats such as flags, posters, and festival objects, the system is bold, adaptive, and personal.