Animator and Visual Artist Chenyi Zhu is an outlier who defies easy labeling. While her independent animated work Night Market has shone brightly at international film festivals—including the Oscar-qualifying Chilemonos—she has simultaneously launched a visual experiment regarding “wearable narrative” in New York’s commercial design scene.
As the Founding Designer of the creative brand PinPaint, Zhu is using her unique “animator’s mindset” to redefine the boundaries of brand design. PinPaint has carved out a highly specialized niche in the market of interactive wearable art and has become a cultural epicenter for indie visual artists in New York.
From Screen to Physical: Constructing a Brand’s “World-building”
In the view of 1883 Magazine, Zhu’s work stands out in the crowded commercial field because she never views design as merely “drawing a logo” or “laying out a poster.” . She possesses a deep, formal background in animation. She has directly transplanted the core “world-building” capability of the animation industry into commercial brands.
“Animation is not just about telling stories on a screen; it is a complex set of visual logics that can apply to all forms of visual communication,” Zhu stated in an interview. “When you design for a brand, you are actually designing its character, its breathing rhythm, and the way it interacts with users.”
PinPaint and “Wearable Narrative”
As the Founding Designer of PinPaint, Zhu leads the design of the brand’s IP and fosters a community of warmth and creativity.
Zhu was involved in the design of the ‘Story Bag’ series and the distinctive collectible pins, which answer Generation Z’s demands for emotional consumption. She also directed the brand’s animated promotional shorts, which were prominently screened at American Dream in New Jersey and at PinPaint’s New York offline launch event—a highly successful debut that attracted an engaged audience of over 200 attendees. By injecting a warm, hand-drawn texture and fluid animated narrative into commercial marketing, she brings life to static physical products. In her design context, bags and pins become ‘wearable narratives’—consumers are not just buying a product, but a tangible form of expression and emotion.
photo by Mengyao Xu, 2025
One Dot Design: “Auteur Expression” on a Commercial Canvas
If PinPaint is an independent universe that Zhu incubated from scratch, then her experience as the Design Lead at One Dot Design demonstrates her exceptional ability to navigate complex commercial propositions. One Dot Design is a boutique designer-led consultancy that serves diverse clients ranging from Valley101 (Youtube channel with over 400k followers) to Studio Amateur (Indie game developer with successful launches like Pirate’s Gambit).
In this role, Zhu coordinates project management, illustration, motion design, and brand design. She leads projects such as video collateral for Valley101, in-game assets for Pirate’s Gambit, multi-threading the transformation of extremely avant-garde visual concepts into practical solutions that meet client needs, such as multi-platform promotional assets to accompany popular videos of Valley101. Whether in 2D animation, motion graphics, graphic design, game art development, or rebranding, Zhu consistently adheres to an aesthetic with a “human touch.”
Conclusion
Chenyi Zhu is breaking the “fourth wall” between 2D animation and various forms of design. She can heal the hearts of audiences with profound stories at international film festivals while also capturing the attention of consumers with pioneering brand designs in New York. For 1883 Magazine, Zhu represents the ultimate form of the next generation of multidisciplinary artists: they are not defined by the medium because they themselves are the masters of the visual realm.
