Yiying Lu | Empowering Through Cross-Cultural Design & Innovation | Talks at Google

Yiying Lu discusses how we can create more value by innovating in the intersection of art, technology, and business. We live in an increasingly borderless world, where creativity in cross-cultural innovation plays an important role in connecting businesses with a much wider global audience from different cultural backgrounds. Yiying integrates creativity in product, messaging, and delivery to ultimately create community, solve problems, tell cultural stories, and generate business value.
From the Twitter Fail Whale to the Dumpling 🥟 and boba tea🧋emojis, Disney Shanghai Mickey Mouse to Conan O'Brien Pale Whale, Yiying Lu creates iconic designs and brands which transcend the linguistic barriers, unite people and enchant audiences around the world. She is also a sought-after bilingual speaker in both English and Chinese, on topics of cross-cultural design, creativity, and innovation at global conferences such as SXSW, TEDx, Adobe MAX, and Web Summit.
Yiying Lu is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur and educator. She was named to Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business and Microsoft’s Top 10 Emerging Leaders in Innovation, and won a Shorty Award in Design. Yiying's work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Atlantic, TIME, Wired Magazine, The Verge, CNN, and BBC. She currently runs her global innovation studio, serves as a San Francisco Arts Commissioner and is a member of the San Francisco Center for the Book and Global SF. Previously, Yiying created iconic art and campaigns for international corporations from Apple to Adobe, and built brands for hundreds of companies as a creative director at 500 Startups. She was also the first global Creative Collaborator at IDEO Shanghai. Leveraging her cross-cultural background and experience, she strives to bridge Art and Tech, Business and Culture, Work and Life, and the East and the West.
Moderated by Leecy Li.

[@jameszheng7690]

So inspirational to see so much creativity being used to integrate different cultures. Well done Yiying!

[@zeuskajita9889]

Wow amazing Yiying! I watched the video with my 7 year old daughter! She was inspired with your artwork while I was impressed at how talented and compassionate you strategize your work in general. Amazing to say the least but what makes your work impressive is how you appreciate every cultural history from every parts of the world and work extensively to bring the beauty of every culture to one unified art piece. Simply awesomeness!!!

[@manuelcuellar4788]

Amazing talk - I learned so much and truly appreciate Yiying’s contribution toward cultural appreciation

[@rdcochrane1746]

Wonderful presentation Yiying and I add in support: historically, the Victorians (UK) understood that a focus on industrial technology was in itself insufficient to drive a manufacturing economy with expansive global export ambitions. They knew that design infrastructure in the form of regional art schools for example was necessary to drive design innovation and regional manufacturing capability through the large-scale development of original ideas, creating jobs and broadening prosperity.obs in the creative industries have increased by 28.6% since 2011 and these jobs are largely future-proofed. 87% of creative jobs are perceived as being at little or no risk of future automation.

[@henrysmith1464]

Failure is to destroy and create, this is amazing! How could it be? But it is one best advice i HEAR these days. Thanks a lot.

[@alicechu4911]

Su much energy and joy! OMG just watched the whole talk. So inspiring!!! I was kind of in a blerg mood today and I feel much better and recharged after watching it. A lot of your topics and answers also put me into deep thinking about what I actually want to do with my life. Yiying is always full of energy and joy and naturally connect people together. You are the best ❤️

[@tinacao8111]

Love your work as always Yiying!

[@grateful_melo]

It was so interesting to learn about the stories and efforts behind the emojis and those Disney icons in Shanghai! Very inspired to see how designs can bridge in a variety of aspects and send a deeper message!

[@xintingcai7242]

Yiying: Thank you a lot for this talk! I was also born in Shanghai, China, and apart from China my higher education is done in different, but mostly, western countries (USA, UK, the Netherlands and Germany) with exposures to people from different cultures. What you said was very interesting and inspiring and I can totally relate. I would like to give you 10x thumbs up! :)

[@herowang2041]

It is inspirational to find out that various culture elements can be put together to create one piece of artwork. though i am not a design graduate, i found it to be interesting :)

[@harryvanderveen773]

Yiying Lu always +1

[@ryanmckim9501]

Awesome

[@sacdigitaldesignweb]

Big tech companies own most media platforms. If you, an artist, can get a foot in the door with them, you are at the top of food chain. It’s all game. Game of survival.

[@mayukhpurkayastha2649]

Sir you invented my imagined machine power acceptor large yantra or machines. This power acceptor help update new type quantum computer. Love Bihar India

[@olxblydpuzziavotqpcc4346]

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