Past Events | Design Trust Graphic Archive Research Fellows Presentation, and Final Public presentations by M+ / Design Trust Research Fellows

15. 4. 2025

Design Trust Graphic Archive Research Fellows Jessica Fu and Gabriella Lai’s public presentation at HKDI Graphic Archive Symposium, photo courtesy of HKDI

Design Trust is pleased to share a series of past fellowship events, including Design Trust Graphic Archive Research Fellows Jessica Fu and Gabriella Lai’s public presentation at HKDI Graphic Archive Symposium on April 11th 2025 sharing their findings on Hong Kong’s graphic design history from the perspective of well-being.

Sharing from Jessica Fu, photo courtesy of HKDI
Sharing from Gabriella Lai, photo courtesy of HKDI

HKDI Graphic Archive Symposium is part of HKDI Graphic Archive’s ongoing research project ‘From Commercial Art to Graphic Design, 1940s–1980s’, and features insights from Design Trust Graphic Archive Research Fellows Jessica Fu and Gabriella Lai. Jessica Fu is a practice based researcher and lecturer. The site-specific installation of her research-creation project reimagines the multi-contextual realities through objects, historical narratives, and stories from the museum's archives, as well as the collective memories of the site and beyond. Gabriella is a designer whose practice spans research and curation. She has worked with creative collectives in Cape Town, Rotterdam and Hong Kong, creating art and cultural experiences for the public. Her creation focuses on food-related phenomena with conceptual thinking and cultural sensitivity.

Design Trust Graphic Archive Research Fellows Jessica Fu and Gabriella Lai’s public presentation at HKDI Graphic Archive Symposium

The M+/Design Trust Research Fellowship programme has supported original research projects investigating design and architecture in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Asia. The talk presented by Leah Hsiao and Flora Weil held Saturday, February 8th, 2025, marked the completion of the M+ / Design Trust Fellowship, as an epilogue to the ten years of meaningful collaboration between M+ and the Design Trust. Looking back at the journey of the M+ / Design Trust Fellowship, Design Trust has supported 17 fellow researchers, designers and scholars, taking into consideration the region‘s cultural, social, economic, and political conditions as well as its international and cross-cultural knowledge networks.

Sharing from Leah Hsiao, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong
Sharing from Leah Hsiao, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong.
Sharing from Flora Weil, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong
Sharing from Flora Weil, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong

Past fellows include Ling Fan, Joseph Grima, Daniel Cooper & Juliana Kei, Thomas Daniell, Hugh Davies, Fan Lok Yi & Sampson Wong, Oliver Elser, Yasmin Tri Aryani, Farzin Lotfi-Jam & Mark Wasiuta, Jason Lau, Emily Verla Bovino, Anouchka van Driel, Leah Hsiao and Flora Weil. Congratulations to Leah and Flora on the excellent talk: Changing Winds in Education and Technology. Design Trust thanks to all the Design Trust co-founders of this fellowship and former and current M+ director and curators for this decade partnership. While there will not be any further editions of this fellowship, past fellows and their projects will remain available online.

Leah Hsiao with respondents Dr. Kan Tai Keung and Professor Yang Yan, moderated by M+ Curator of Design and Architecture Shirley Surya, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong.
Flora Weil with Professor Ruishan Chen and Dr. Travis Klingberg, moderated by M+ Curator of Design and Architecture Sunny Cheung, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong.
The public talks from M+/Design Trust Research Fellows Leah Hsiao and Flora Weil marking an epilogue to the ten years of meaningful collaboration between M+ and Design Trust, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong
Sharing from Flora Weil, photo courtesy of Felix S.C. Wong

For more details on past fellows and their projects, please visit the website via link here.