My creative practice is rooted in a passion for working across media—traditional, digital, and hybrid forms—to generate compelling and culturally responsive visual communication. Whether designing for print, screen, or spatial environments, I approach each project through the lens of holistic composition. Line, shape, color, and texture are not isolated components but interdependent systems. Much like the balance required in community and design education, visual harmony arises when these elements work in concert to produce clarity, dynamism, and impact. This interdisciplinary approach informs my teaching, where I emphasize the integration of formal principles, cultural context, and emerging technologies to create design solutions with purpose and longevity for diverse audiences and communities.
My current creative research investigates public awareness of genetically modified organisms through the integration of typography, photography, and spatial design. By merging structured and expressive typographic forms with visual references to gene splicing and mutation, I create work that evokes the fluid and unstable identities of modified organisms. These compositions function as visual prompts—inviting viewers to question the cultural, ethical, and ecological implications of biotechnology and the changing landscape of the food system. My intention is not only to i nform but to cultivate critical reflection and dialogue around topics that are easily overlooked yet deeply consequential.
Underlying my creative work is a strong sense of responsibility to my environment and community. I believe design is a relational practice—shaped by context, dialogue, and impact. This ethos informs both my studio work and my teaching. As an artist and educator, I aim to foster curiosity, agency, and visual literacy in others. I encourage students to engage with design as a platform for cultural insight, social awareness, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Through thoughtful expression, research-driven practice, and meaningful engagement, I strive to make a positive contribution to the individuals and communities I serve.
I am interested in the way people perceive and process information, and how their ability to learn may be improved by using visuals, and sound to translate complex, abstract information into concrete, experiential forms. Music is the expression of the past, and the present, and helps define the course of time. My work explores this abstract and mystery communication device, by developing visuals that assist in understanding the complex musical elements:
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AWARD: INDIGO GOLD + SILVER
DATE: Hong Kong 10 October, 2018
CATEGORY: DESIGN, TYPE, DIGITAL ART
ONLINE: www.indigoaward.com
My ongoing body of work explores the cultural and ecological implications of plant genetic modification. The installation Genetically Premature Rhetoric serves as a catalyst for dialogue, inviting viewers to question the language, science, and assumptions surrounding engineered ecology. This piece marks the beginning of a growing series that continues to investigate how rhetoric and biotechnology intersect in public consciousness.
My research critically examines the narratives of food science and genetically modified organisms, raising questions about biological safety, transparency, and long-term impact. I use visual communication as a tool for public engagement, aiming to create work that informs, challenges, and activates reflection.
In these projects, I combine both freeform and structured typographic systems with layered imagery referencing gene splicing. This visual approach produces momentary impressions of instability and transformation—echoing the evolving identity of genetically modified organisms. The work encourages viewers to consider the future of our food systems and the cultural shifts that may accompany irreversible change.
National Human Genome Research Institute
The pigments that drew Martin’s interest are anthocyanins, which give blueberries, blackberries and eggplants their rich blue-purple hues. With funding from a German consortium, she set out to engineer tomatoes high in anthocyanins, aiming to increase the fruits’ antioxidant capacity
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The social function of the gaze extends far beyond humans. In most social species, eye contact serves as a powerful signal of intent, conveying unspoken messages of threat, dominance, submission, courtship, and more—whether through direct gaze, gaze aversion, or shifts in eye color. Evolution has even equipped many moths, butterflies, and fish with eyelike markings, known as “eyespots,” designed to mislead or intimidate predators.
Eye contact—often termed “mutual gaze” in the study of nonverbal communication—can be unsettling because it signals that the individual looking at us intends to initiate some form of interaction. That intention may be exciting and welcome or frightening and intrusive, but in either case, another’s gaze prompts us to respond.
