Creative direction between cultures, systems and ideas.

I'm an AI Creative Director based in Bolzano, Italy. I started in Milan with a design background from Politecnico di Milano, spent ten years building brands in Shanghai, and now work across European and international markets.

Ten years in Shanghai

I spent ten years in Shanghai, where I co-founded Melo & Yan Design and worked across Chinese and international brand environments.

That experience taught me how an idea changes when it moves between cultures — how a logo that works in Milan can fall flat in Shanghai, and what to change in the execution so the thought behind it survives the move. It is a perspective most European creative directors never get: ten years inside one of the world's fastest creative and technological markets.

From creative direction to AI creative systems

The old creative director's job was built around directing a limited number of people, assets and channels. The new one also has to direct generative tools, design production systems, protect consistency and decide what should stay human.

My work sits above the tools. I decide what should be made, why it should exist, what should be rejected, how it should look, and which parts of the process should never be automated. Taste becomes more valuable, not less, when images become cheap.

Selected experience

• Huawei
• LEGO
• Porsche
• SIASUN Robotics
• Teekanne
• Kawneer
• European Union, with Ogilvy
• Athesia Group
• Roma Marina Yachting
• Cascina Biblioteca

Work delivered across a range of roles — co-founder, art director and senior designer — independently and through agencies and employers. Project-level context is given in each case study.

Recognition

• Gold — Best Brand Experience, Transform Awards Asia-Pacific (2015)
• Finalist — Samsung Young Design Award (2008)
• Shanghai Design Week
• Tongji University Design Week
• Vanity Teen Magazine, Chinese edition
• All My Idols, Shanghai

Also

I develop original IP and animated stories as the artist Kaji 卡机 — characters and visual worlds built to become distinctive brand assets rather than disposable content.