william v hsu

[The Impermenant Books] is a series of experiments that aim to explore people’s intimate relationships with objects and their unique ways of preserving them. The project consists of three books that disintegrate at a faster rate than normal books. This is accomplished by introducing unconventional materials, production methods, and forms in the processes of bookmaking. This disintegrative character is counteracted by the reader’s impulse to either preserve or experience the books as intended despite their finite quality. How we preserve objects in our lives is distinct for everyone. The Impermanent Books amplifies these differences by adding an expiration date, yielding a new relationship to the format of the book. The Impermanent Books is unified by the lightness of the overarching color selection, as if the content itself is anticipating its inevitable ephemeral transcendence into oblivion. As you attempt to grasp onto the physical existence of these books, you also face the dilemma of preserving or sacrificing your experiences with them. This is my Parsons 2024 thesis, hope you enjoy and feel free to check out my portfolio (in my bio) for more info about my thesis ⭐️ #design #graphicdesign #parsonsmakes #book #bookdesign #experimentalgraphics #thesis

🎇🐎新年快樂🐎🎇 Happy Year of the Horse! + a design that I made into postcards to send to my friends all over the world 👁️👅👁️ (more documentation for that coming sooooooon🧨) #graphicdesign #horse #yearofthehorse #2026 #chinesenewyear

[Excalibur and the Deification of Political Power] is about Excalibur—the sword, the myth, the image. It explores leadership, power, trust, discontent, belief, and the people who are swept up in all of it. ⚔️ I’ve long been fascinated with the Excalibur, as a symbol as well as an object of mythology. I’ve also always thought about the bizarre nature of the story of King Arthur and the Excalibur. How a simple act of sword pulling extends into representation of kingship and qualifications to lead as king. This reminded me of certain mythological auras that political individuals have created and serves as a parallel for how a great image can grant an individual absolute power. For certain people, the actual capabilities of leaders mean nothing when their brand is dazzling and attractive, and I believe that to be the real Excalibur. This book discusses power and those who wield it, not because they’re qualified but because they are charming. Compelling façades, empty promises, and dazzling performances—is that all it takes to lead a nation? — The exterior of this book is crafted to resemble a sword. The cover is debossed by hand, mimicking effects of an engraving on metal. Inside, the book consists of two sections. The first section is a risograph printed fold-out explaining the history and etymology of Excalibur. The second section is a coptic bound booklet that features three separate articles that examine the intersection of mythology and political power. Page footers taper into a stylized sword tip, accommodating both pagination and visual representation of a sword. Additional notes at the end of each article is attached with a sword cocktail toothpick, reinforcing the idea of false power. The book also includes a letterpress printed image of a sword hilt that acts as a bookmark. When the book stands vertically on a flat surface, it evokes the image of a sword plunged into the Earth—awaiting its next righteous wielder to pull it free. Typefaces used in this book are: Signifier Regular by Klim Type @klim_type_foundry & HAL Timezone Mono Regular by HAL Typefaces (@elias_hanzer & @lucasliccini )

[MacBookBook] is inspired by images that evoke the digital-real world crossover, a surreal terrain and grey area where activities/events/objects of the digital realm are brought into the real world and vice versa. The idea of simulacra, or something that replaces reality with its representation (coined by Jean Baudrillard), serves as a foundation for the collected images. Familiar icons that exist on our screens, like trash cans, are analogies of objects and environments that exist in the real world. This phenomenon is called a Desktop Environment, where designers of early Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) and computing systems implemented. This vocabulary is often borrowed by digital interfaces so that users can comprehend certain functions more intuitively. Images of arrowheads that look like cursor arrows, antivirus discs used as a surgical mask, or even a MacBook held sideways as an actual book, are all examples of digital simulacra seeping into our realities. Stemming from these fundamental concepts, the collection of images that made it into the collage were images with adjacent meanings, visual language, or editing treatment creating a topography of digital realities. Images that imply alternate uses of digital devices in displaced contexts, hyperreal digital recreations of the world, and non-sensical coincidences where the two realms align can all be seen throughout this book. Albeit humorously ironic, these images also serve as cautionary tales of how digital overconsumption can lead to blurred boundaries of the two distinct landscapes. MacBookBook is an accordion style book, designed, printed, and bound by William Hsu in 2024. Typefaces used include Times New Roman, and Apple Symbols. An excerpt from Jean Baudrilliard’s Simulation and Simulacra was included in this booklet. 💻🤓 - In addition, I’m extremely grateful to share that this book was showcased at The Simulated Real exhibition hosted by @joshybby and @allyy.kimm among with many other talented artists at @mr.kills.nyc gallery this past weekend!!!! 😇⭐️🍰💐

This past semester I had the privilege to take an Advanced Screenprinting course with Luther Davis. Throughout this course I was able to experiment with various screen printing techniques I have never played with before. Some things I did include: making stencils with rubylith, printing burnt plate oil onto surfaces like wood and doilies, as well as screen printing on spring roll rice paper. I absolutely enjoyed every second in this course and was so excited to get to play with all these unconventional techniques and materials! And I hope to carry these into my own future practices 😋 I’ve selected a few pieces of work that I had fun making. Hope you enjoy them! ⋆⭒˚｡⋆ ⊹ ࣪ ˖\(^o^)/

[Solar Cycle] is a collection of film photographs i took that were attempts of directly capturing the sun. the photographs were then printed on risograph with four colors and drum-leaf binded. This somewhat direct confrontation with the sun gives solace to my ambivalent relationship with it. I really enjoyed this idea of the solar cycle, where the magnetic fields shift every 11 years, where good and bad can coexist, both feelings are valid, and not one thing is definitively black or white. This was sold at the @brooklynartbookfair and Parsons Offset Art Book Fair this year! There are a few copies left, feel free to DM me if anyone is interested in owning one! Typeface for cover title is PP Migra Light by @pangram.pangram ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ #design #graphicdesign #bookmaking #risograph

Screenprinting experiment with burnt plate oil yesterday! The subtle absorption of the oil into paper is almost a quiet protest of the inevitability of time passing ^0^ Very cool! More to come 😱😱😱😱 #screenprint #screenprinting #typography #graphicdesign #design #experimental

Dear BrooklynArtBookFair, ThankYou! Love, Wilverhsu

Here are three more amazing thesis projects from CD Thesis Open Studios by Sarah Ma @d3xin Rand Rivera @randrivera and William Hsu @wilverhsu Stay tuned for more work from the talented class of 2024! Video by the brilliant @theingitt and @chaiwithsai_ #communicationdesign #impermenantbooks #cyanotype #loveletters #embossedpaper #generativeai #robotrand #meaningthroughmaking #parsonschoolofdesign #thesis

[The Skin Wikibook] is a 200 page booklet that compiled 12 Wikipedia articles, all of which originated from the wikipedia page on “skin.” This was done as a research method for my early thesis topic, where I was curious in ways skin can be represented in the context of graphic design. With the idea of skin being anything on the exterior, and everything else on the interior, the book is divided into interior/exterior sections. The interior parts of a spread consists of texts from Wikipedia, while the exterior parts consists of images that accompany the texts. In addition to this, the captions for the images are printed directly opposite of the printed images, on the other side of the spread. This is done so that the images/texts would be visible from one side under direct sunlight, mimicking the effects of subsurface scattering (light scattered when penetrating translucent objects) of the skin. The entire book is also bounded with paperclips, indicating the orderless format of these wikipedia pages; an exploration done in one page could easily lead to the other, and the other, and the other. #design #graphicdesign #book #bookdesign

[Signbathing] is a physical record of solar energy, and an indirect documentation of the sun. Faded signs, or sometimes called “ghost signs,” are when the colors and design of any types of sign have been under sun exposure for so long that the surface of these signs lose parts of or all of their color. This happens because the UV rays excite and break down the pigment that absorbs these UV rays. This is also why some colors on a sign stay more intact than others, because different colors have different wavelengths, thus different timing for when a pigment breaks down. While Signbathing is a very straightforward visual documentation of sun exposure and its slow yet intense effects, it also captures the shift in landscape surrounding it. Not only does the time of day effect the visibility of these signs, but also the pixelation of certain time periods, displaying a progression through time. In addition to this, the cultural implication of faded signs exemplify the Anthropocene of each image, displaying dynamic shift in culture and environment All images have been collected through screenshots via Google Maps, within the neighborhoods of Bushwick, New York and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. #design #graphicdesign #typography #googlemaps #ghostsigns

go piss girl! prints🪤‼️ my first time doing cmyk screenprinting 😇 thank you @wutongwutong for being my muse 🙏 #screenprinting #screenprint #design #art #cmyk #gopissgirl