Rui Ma is an award-winning senior designer based in Los Angeles. She focuses on graphic design, art direction, and digital design. She always has a passion for illustration and fashion. Her work incorporates bold, dynamic typography and illustration, along with energetic colors. Rui’s design inspiration comes from life, music, art, and other creative individuals she has worked with. She believes visual communication design through different kinds of media can help solve problems and change the world.

Inspired from a question after reading a few psychology books, Rui created a series of posters named Emotions in English and Chinese.

What would emotions look like in the visual world? This series of posters represent four different types of basic emotions – Joy, Anger, Sadness, and Fear. They also show the connection between emotions and facial expressions in visual form.

The design was created in its grid with abstract illustrations, vibrant colors, and dynamic typography. Each visual language works as individual designs on its own. At the same time, all the poster designs work as a system.

Emotions can be abstract and also representational at the same time. The challenge of the project was how to visualize emotions in playful and contemporary design/illustration styles. The research on the connection between facial expressions and emotions was also a challenge but also an interesting subject. Would everyone have the same facial expressions when they have certain emotions? The answer is yes according to online sources from scientists.