Chai Avery is a graphic designer from Powder Springs, Georgia. Chai has been designing since her freshman year of high school, and her love of art-making dates back to kindergarten. During her education at Georgia College and State University, Chai developed skills in both digital and traditional disciplines, namely typography, graphic design, and ceramic art. Her current project, Bug-Eyed Design: A Pop-Up Guide to Art and Design, is an educational resource for beginning artists, engaging readers in elements and principles of design that jump right off the page (literally). Chai will graduate in May 2026 and continue to pursue her career as a Graphic Designer.
Project Statement
Bug-Eyed Design is an interactive pop-up book that teaches the elements and principles of art through insect imagery and paper mechanics. The project grows from my lifelong fascination with pop-up books and three-dimensional paper craft, combined with my education in art and design. This book functions as an educational guide to the fundamentals of visual design, with particular emphasis on the concepts most useful to graphic designers. Each concept is illustrated by comparison to an insect, coupled with a moving mechanical component that demonstrates the concept in action. Each page is constructed from vinyl-reinforced cardstock, meticulously cut and mathematically composed to move and be physically interacted with. Pull tabs, layered structures, and pop-up mechanisms allowed the reader to manipulate the page and experience the design concept through motion. The movement of the paper components reinforces the idea being explained, transforming abstract principles of art into a tactile experience. Although much of my work as a graphic designer is primarily digital, this project is intentionally physical. Historically, books have been the primary way humanity has recorded and shared information, with the earliest examples over a century old. While the internet and smartphones have shifted much of this information into digital space, physical books still offer a form of interaction that screens cannot replicate. Through paper engineering and mechanical design, this project explores the continued potential of the book as an interactive object. For me, working with analog materials has become an increasingly valuable source of inspiration. In contrast to the constant presence of screens, digital media, and artificial intelligence, the physical process of cutting, assembling, and constructing the book reconnects design with material and movement. Bug-Eyed Design embraces the tactile possibilities of paper to transform design education into an engaging, hands-on experience.
Artist Statement
My work is propelled by color; both its visual impact and the emotional responses it can provoke. I am interested in how color, contrast, and visual organization stimulate the mind, poking the brain in one direction or another, allowing the eye to rest on images of energy, and to experience the sensation of color itself. Hyperactivity informs my artistic practice. I create the balance that my brain does not naturally possess, order, and vivid color direct my attention, fueling focus and inspiration through visual stimulation. In this way, my learning disability becomes both the process and the subject of my work. My research is a collection of personal experience and observation. Emotion encourages my work to remain empathetic to the human condition, while offering moments of calm in its wake. For me, making art is a way of finding comfort and equilibrium. It is an attempt to balance good chaos with bad chaos, energy with order. I know my work is successful when visual stimulation overtakes my mind, removing distraction, and settling my thoughts into quiet order.
