Lecture recording is now available for the CCA community for education purposes after the event. 

The Design Division at CCA welcomed Jasper Wong as our third speaker in the 2020 Fall Design Lecture Series. These lectures bring leading designers, strategists, curators and educators to speak with our community. The Fall 2020 series speaks to design as a tool for empowerment. 

Jasper Wong has mastered “the art of the start”.  His career has been punctuated by an entrepreneurial spirit rivaled only by his inherent passion for self-directed learning.  Wong’s fervent desire to take bold risks in pursuit of his vision and to “find his way through his own means” has endowed him with a life “rich in friends, family and experiences”.  Today, Wong wears many hats, least of which are Art Director, Illustrator, Designer, and Entrepreneur.

A 2006 alum of the BFA, Illustration Program at CCA, Wong describes his time here as “life changing”. His talk underscores the value in not only the exposure to a community of talented artists and teachers, but also in the exposure to the Bay Area’s many galleries. It was during that time that he fell in love with the idea of showing one’s work publicly.  A true entrepreneur, Wong saw opportunities in the challenges that came his way.  

Not wanting to “wait around in hopes that someone would hire him”, he set out for Hong Kong, carrying with him a portfolio of his work and a desire to show that work in galleries. Continually rejected for not being what he calls “the right Chinese”, Wong opened his own gallery.  Above Second Gallery featured local Hong Kong artists and was the starting point of the first art festival known as POW! WOW!

POW! WOW!, Wong's second entrepreneurial pursuit was designed in 2010 to open up the art process to the public, enable greater collaboration amongst artists, and to provide a platform for artists to create without the worry of selling work.  When an outdoor wall attached to a neighboring building was presented as a possible canvas, Wong willingly obliged.  He followed with a second exhibition in his home town in Hawaii. It was there that he began to solidify his vision to use art to “enact change in one’s community”.  POW! WOW! has grown into a global art and music festival held in over 17 cities. It is now focused on “using public art to support underserved communities”.  Murals and workshops have been held in schools and public housing, giving young kids free opportunities to learn from professional artists.

POW! WOW! has also been an impetus for Wong’s other impact-driven work.  Lana Lane Studios in Hawaii is Wong’s third venture.  It was co-founded to provide an “affordable space for artists to come together”.  Wong describes it as an “artist favela” that “houses over 30 artists that now call that place home”.  One might find designers, painters, illustrators and printmakers colliding with a music studio, photography studio and tattoo studio. 

Wong’s path has been peppered with passion and a strong belief in his work.  He sees the festival as a door opening to art direction, design and illustration work with a bevy of brands, including Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo, Neiman Marcus and Hypebeast.  Throughout the talk, we get the sense from Wong that none of that would have been possible without the zeal and drive to develop skills in networking, negotiation, fundraising and decision-making.  When faced with two opposing options or even three, Wong hit start and just went for it.

Authored by Sasha Charlemagne