A LUNAR NEW YEAR FOR UDCA
Role: Lead Designer
Years: 2023–Present
Organization: Upper Dublin Chinese Association (UDCA) Scope: Visual identity, event materials, and ongoing design partnership across annual cultural programming
Reach: Greater Philadelphia AAPI and intercultural community
Link: udca · lunar new year
OVERVIEW
A Lunar New Year for UDCA is an ongoing volunteer design partnership with the Upper Dublin Chinese Association, a small community organization in suburban Philadelphia. Working pro bono since 2023, I have served as the lead designer for UDCA’s annual cultural events while staying closely connected to the board members who shape programming, contributing not only visual identity and event materials but also conversations about how the organization presents itself and engages its broader community. The work treats design as cultural infrastructure for an immigrant community: a way of making cultural celebration legible and inviting, while building bridges between cultural specificity and civic, intercultural engagement.
CHALLENGE
Cultural celebration design often falls into stereotype or generic “Asian” visuals that shorthand specific traditions into interchangeable signifiers for outside audiences. The challenge for this work was to honor UDCA’s cultural specificity without flattening it by balancing contemporary visual language with traditional cultural references to make the design feel current and confident. Working pro bono for a volunteer-run organization with limited budget and no dedicated marketing infrastructure added further constraints, every design decision had to be sustainable, reusable, and producible by volunteers who would carry the work forward.
APPROACH
UPPER DUBLIN CHINESE ASSOCIATION
For their Lunar New Year Celebration, I created cohesive visuals rooted in cultural symbolism and oversaw event branding, from digital invitations to on-site signage and storytelling components.
IMPACT
The most meaningful measure of this work is its continuity. Since 2023, I have continued to design UDCA’s annual events, with the board and members responding to the work as something that represents them visually, culturally, and politically. Attendees have shared personal responses about feeling seen at events, and the organization has expanded its visibility within the broader Philadelphia region through the design language we have built together. What this project demonstrates is that community-engaged design is an ongoing relationship, not a one-off deliverable: a sustained collaboration where design develops alongside the organization it serves, deepening with trust over time.