My design takes contrasting elements in a culture as subject matter, employs branding as an alloying medium, and creates interior design as a final manifestation. Each project is concerned with contrary aspects of a culture, and investigates ways to amalgamate them into a holistic experience in a space. The thesis research was conducted based on the premise that interior design and branding share a great deal of similarities when addressing emotional engagement. In my projects, branding creates experience, experience raises emotion, and emotion engages people in the space and to others within it. Another motivation that drove my design was the identity crisis that I have experienced as an immigrant designer. The contradiction between ethnic cultural influence and contemporary design expression finds harmony through the branding process in my projects. By branding a culture in a space, I attempted to make a culture more transferable and respectable in another cultural context. The exhibition of my thesis projects was held at the Installation room in the art building at San Diego State University, April 13-19 in 2012.
