Doris Liu was stuck: she had posted on social media in search of collaborators for an independent publishing project following graduation from Pratt, where she’d received an MFA in Communications Design, and came up dry. “It surprised me that no one came to me,” says Liu. Turns out, her answer lay back where she started.
A little over a month before the 2023 Detroit Book Fair, Liu reached out to her former classmates Zia Qian, Lihao Zhu, Lexi Xu, and Zhenyu Zhou—all MFA Communications Design ’23—who had been developing books for course assignments and final projects during their time at Pratt. Rather than attending separately, they joined forces and applied for one table together. “Why not just try our best and push it further?” writes Zhu. “So, I suggested that we brand ourselves as a press.”
After a few weeks of last-minute hustling, the group of five secured a table at Detroit Art Book Fair and soon after put together a press website and an Instagram account. Dream Labor Press (DLP) was born.
Photo by Tianqi Liao
Self-described as “Chinese female graphic designer-authors primarily based in the US,” DLP integrates bilingual design into their zines and artists books. One such project, by Lihao, is Bilingual Designer Manifesto, a risograph zine declaring the challenges and responsibilities of Mandarin-English bilingual designers. Presented in color-coded versions—Simplified Chinese and English—the manifesto is printed on transparent posters and layered for a bilingual reading experience. “Rather than purposefully stressing the uniqueness of our identities and experiences, this is organically reflected in our work,” writes Zhou.
In Xu’s words, “it’s storytelling that brings people from far away together.” Her works like Proust Moments (referring to the feeling of being suddenly transported back to the past) and Love from Grandma focus on shared and individual memory. “No matter which part of the world you are from,” writes Xu, “whether rich or poor, young or old, someone very different from me can share the same feeling of having a grandma. I think that’s the power of storytelling.”
“Print out your work . . . Don’t hover at the door.”
Zia Qian, MFA Communications Design ’23
Connecting with readers is a major drive for DLP’s practice, and has kept the press motivated to branch out and move forward in the small-press world. “What excites me about self-published work is the freedom and immediacy it offers,” Xu notes. “It’s amazing to find that the audience resonates with your work and to have the chance to talk with them directly. Studying at Pratt definitely gave me more opportunities to explore different ways of expression.”
While the press aims to extend its reach to a wider audience, they have also focused on fostering their readership with a unique community of women of color creatives, Chinese-speaking/reading students, and those passionate about storytelling and fiction-making. For Zhu, this is directly linked to the press’s coming-of-age in the Communications Design MFA program, with its emphasis on boundary-breaking thinking and making: “It opened my eyes to gaps in the industry, empowering me to speak for social justice and expand design discourse.”
At the other end of the book fair table, DLP hopes that more people choose to share their own books with the world. “Print out your work,” Qian says. “Don’t hover at the door.”
5 Books by Dream Labor Press
Bilingual Designer Manifesto and Bilingual Design 101: Punctuation by Lihao Zhu
A single-sheet print and a newspaper written in Simplified Chinese and English describing the challenges and responsibilities of Mandarin-English bilingual designers.
Distant Flash by Doris Liu
A set of three photo books from a series about time, space, and sociality that explore the role photographic practice plays in understanding embodied experience.
Stream of Consciousness Workbook by Lexi Xu
A workbook intended to teach readers about how to apply stream-of-consciousness-as-methodology to their design.
Slow It Down: In Praise of Wondering, A Manifesto by Zhenyu Zhou
An accordion-bound hardcover book compilation of Zhou’s observations and designs inspired by taking walks, slowing down, and living in the moment.
The Meme-ing of Political Discourse by Zia Qian
A book presenting Qian’s research process around technology, psychology, and politics in the digital age.