ARIEL TONG & HER ARIEL AMBITIONS
From student to business owner and content creator. Ariel Tong does it all.
Ariel Tong, 22, has just graduated from Graphic and Media Design at the London College of Communication. Tong has been in London for four years, having done a placement year at Decathalon, securing a part-time job as a graphic designer. We interviewed her to gain insight into how student can also be a business owner and content creator. How does she do it all? Well, you’re about to find out:
“I created CHAOS by Ariel after I finished school, and I only had skills in illustration which was very basic graphic design. I think I just got very bored during the summer.”
Ariel went on to say, “To be awarded the 2023 Clive Baillie Scholarship has been a great benefit to me for the completion of my final year at London College of Communication. As a designer, I love print and the scholarship enabled me to use this method for my final year projects.”
“Type as sculpture was one of my final major projects; the idea was to display type weights in a physical form that shows the interpolation points between the thinnest and the heaviest weight. I played with a few starting points such as using code to generate variable type and isometric perspective to overlaying contrasting weight difference. I also carried out research into font design to learn how to make my own typeface. For this project, I explored the notion of switching from analogue to digital to visualise type.
“Type in letterpress printing is a wholly physical process that requires manual typesetting; this reinforces the analysis of letterforms and systematic thinking of type design. Using letterpress allowed me to take note of how we can physically interact with different sizes and fonts. The development and purpose of a font has gone through drastic changes by starting as metal or wood type for the printing press to now variable type that can change based on motion or to generative coding of type that can mimic handwriting.
Intertwining crochet into her ongoing business, Tong will also be accepting crochet commissions to create more connectivity and memorable pieces to her audiences. Now using her business platform as a creative output, she has explored the world of crocheting, a craft that has gained popularity on TikTok in the summer of 2021. “I started in 2021, in December, but also the cost was a big factor,” Tong revealed, saying she was hesitant at first to begin her crochet journey.
“I managed to incorporate it into my uni work so I didn’t feel as guilty to spend money on it. It’s not just a hobby anymore. I think it’s so cool to turn that illustration into crochet work, that’s why I like crochet,” she says. It was difficult at first to introduce the method of crochet to her university work, Tong says. “So it’s graphic and media, which is one thing I really love about my course, because lots of people forget about the media aspect, so you can do anything really.” There was an option for her dissertation module to create her own module, which gave her what she calls the ultimate freedom. Tong realised that crochet is also a physical element: “I remember at the beginning of the year, I wanted to bring more physical elements into graphic design.”
Tong first explored crochet through her self-directed portfolio project, in which she created bags inspired by the Chinese candy, White Rabbit. The white rabbit is a creamy milk candy and has been in production since 1943. White Rabbit is considered to be an iconic cultural brand.
Tong says: “I wanted to find something that can focus on visual communication and also my comfortability, so when I think about comfortability I think about food and nostalgic things… I ended up with White Rabbit.” Tong explains how she landed on the idea for this project: “First, the colours are really strong and vibrant, with Asian packaging it’s straight up, bold, and sometimes it looks kind of ugly but it makes it iconic. Packaging is a big part of graphic design.”
Tong realised that Crochet is a hybrid of both of these aspects, emotional and physical. Physically crochet provides physical comfort as the materials that are used are soft. Whilst the emotional aspect, the aesthetic property of the White Rabbit attracts people within this culture. “People will have that connectivity with you, so that emotional aspect is already established, it is also a way to form with your community,” Tong explained.
“As this project relives the feeling of nostalgic comfort, Tong explains her feelings about that are not straightforward: “It’s not the place I miss the most, it’s the memories I make at that place.”
Ariel mentions, that growing up she moved around a lot but is now enjoying London life: “I do not feel homesickness the way other people do because I’m really happy here,” revealing that she enjoyed being in London and exploring a deeper connection with the city. As Tong lived around South East Asia during her childhood, Tong is considered to be a ‘Third Culture Kid’. Third-culture kids are children who grew up in an area which is different from their nationality.
It is no surprise with her creative outcomes, Tong has gained lots of traction on social media, especially with Pinterest and YouTube, with 418,000 monthly views on Pinterest, and over a thousand subscribers on YouTube.
“I did a panel with Pinterest, at the headquarters, I was talking in front of about 300 people,” Tong said, explaining she was invited to talk about creative strategy, content planning, finding her own identity, and how does she balance content creation whilst being in university. Tong has been invited to multiple events which Pinterest held, such as the collaboration with TastemadeUK and a cooking class with EATaly.
So how does she do it all?
“A calendar. For real. My calendar saved my life,” Tong said, laughing, having a healthy work and social life balance is important. Tong realised that she was too focused on working. “So then this year I would always try to do my best to make time to see my friends,” Tong promised to herself. She explained the significance of her friends in her busy schedule. “I think being around the right people who encourage you to do these things and encourage you to do more always helps.”
Lastly, Tong says: “I just can’t sit still. I think being a middle child really helped with this, I always had to distract myself with things because my older and younger sisters were always having their own thing.”