Hello, and nice to meet you! My name is Liz Li.
I’m a graphic designer specializing in books and branding.
Welcome to my portfolio!
Wong Kar Wai
A Chapbook by Maya Lu
- 5.5″ wide x 5.5″ tall
- Riso printed in teal and red ink
- 24 pages saddle bound
- Publisher: Kaya Press
- Role: editorial design, production coordinator
- Typeface(s): Avara, Optima
- Collaborators: Maya Lu (author), Kaya Press (publisher), Tiny Splendor (printer)
Double Happiness is the first in a series of chapbooks published by Kaya Press’ imprint, Milkteeth Books. Written by Maya Lu. Printed in risograph at Tiny Splendor in Los Angeles, California.
What comes before a language and a home, and what comes after—if “after” exists at all? The first title from Kaya Press’ Milkteeth imprint, Maya Lu's Double Happiness meanders through family gardens and Chinese zodiac cycles, personal and political histories. Responding to a 对联 passed on from her mother, Lu tends to the lost and the inherited, “choosing what to dig out / and what to leave behind” between generations. Blending lyric vignettes and archival photos, Double Happiness weaves dreamlike between the ever-changing landscapes of Beijing and California and the strange gaps of what memory carries.
The square motif throughout this book serves to censor, highlight, and weaves a story out of certain pieces of photography that correlate with the text—akin to how one’s memory obscures and emphasizes only select pieces of the past. These squares not only mirror the trim of the book itself, but it also references the red “福” decorations that are commonly used around the time of Lunar New Year in Chinese families.