IMPORTANT:
- Due to security, each attendee’s name must be on the list. Please do not purchase tickets for friends.
- Registration Required and will close 24 hours prior to event.
Event Description:
AIGA SF and Adobe are excited to host a special “Designing for Belonging” workshop with San Francisco–based artist and designer Yiying Lu.
In this interactive, hands-on session, participants will explore the idea of belonging through a blend of analog drawing and AI-powered tools (Adobe Express + Firefly). Yiying Lu will first share her creative process of how she created the Unicode dumpling emoji :dumpling:, which now lives on billions of people’s phone keyboards, including yours. Then, through guided prompts and creative exercises, you’ll reflect on what togetherness means to you and bring those ideas to life visually.
Yiying is widely known for creating the Unicode dumpling 
and boba tea 
emojis, and has spent over a decade leading co-creation workshops with organizations such as Apple, Google, Airbnb, Dropbox, IDEO, Bay Area Bar Association, and Stanford. Her work brings people together through creativity, storytelling, and shared expression.
This session is designed to be welcoming, reflective, and energizing. No prior artistic or technical experience is needed.
Snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will be served.
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, July 21
Time: 5:30-7:30 PM
Format: In-person, interactive workshop
Capacity: 50 participants. Spots are limited — please register early. A waitlist will be available once registration is full.
What to bring: Laptop (for Adobe Express & Adobe Firefly access)
About the Facilitator:
Yiying Lu is an award-winning creative leader at the intersection of art, technology, and human experience — creator of the Twitter Fail Whale, six Unicode emojis, including the Dumpling and Boba Tea , and large-scale visual identity work for the UN and Disney Shanghai. Her work explores how symbols, letterforms, and visual language can make people feel seen, included, and at home, across cultures and billions of screens. A former San Francisco Arts Commissioner and Global Creative Director at 500 Global, she is an Adobe Global Creative Ambassador and Fast Company Most Creative Person in Business, and speaks at SXSW, TEDx, and Web Summit. Born in Shanghai, educated in Sydney and London, and now based in San Francisco, she brings a lived multilingual perspective to the question of how design creates belonging.
Links:
Website: https://yiyinglu.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/