Character Development
Character Development is an ongoing project exploring the elasticity of typography through the experimentation and abstraction of the character, “美” – the first character in my name – meaning "beauty" in Japanese and Chinese. This project has acted like Rorschach tests, reinventing the character’s defined meaning through the use of different mediums and colours.
Since its conception in 2025,
Character Development has continued to evolve and take new shapes with each passing year. Ongoing, different evolutions or series of Character Development are labelled numerically: 2025 will be archived as 1.0, 2026 is 2.0, and works to be created in subsequent years will follow as 3.0, 4.0, etc.
Character Development 1.1, Digital, 2025.
Character Development 1.2, 16x20” digital poster, 2025.
Character Development 2.2 as part of Swash and Serif 9 at Northern Contemporary, Toronto, 2025. Photo courtesy of Toronto Design Directory.
Character Development 2.2 as part of Open Type at Atelier Next Door, Toronto, 2025.
Photo courtesy of Atelier Next Door,
Character Development 2.1, 6x6”, acrylic gouache and watersoluble crayon on hot press watercolour paper, 2026.
Character Development 2.2, 5x7”,
acrylic gouache on wood panel,
2026.
Character Development 2.3,
5x7”,
acrylic gouache on cold press watercolour paper,
2026.
Character Development 2.4,
5x7”,
pencil crayon and acrylic gouache on cold press watercolour paper, 2026.
Character Development 2.5,
5x7”,
acrylic gouache and watersoluble crayon on cold press watercolour paper,
2026.