Healing from hate
This story, which is about my community in my hometown, is one of the most difficult but meaningful pieces that I’ve worked on.
Asians and Asian Americans in Columbia, Missouri, reflect on the Atlanta spa shootings one year later. This package was put together by women of Asian descent.
2022
Client: Vox Magazine, KBIA
CD: Makalah Hardy
AD, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Text: Cela Migan
Photo: Amy Schaffer
Audio
A reporter reflects on the Atlanta spa shootings and anti-Asian violence
A reporter reflects on the Atlanta spa shootings and anti-Asian violence
Page Design
Each photo is a collage of a portrait of an interviewee in present-day with a “slice” interrupting them. Each photo in the present is taken in a location where each interviewee remembers on having felt different for their race; the photo that interjects their portrait reflects a person or place that they were reminded of following the Atlanta spa shootings.
Broken Homes
A story about the Domestic Violence Enforcement Unit — told by the numbers.
This series of photos was set-up in my basement. They take after crime scene photos — how haunting they feel and how they tell a story without explicit photos of the victim or the perpetrator. It was important that photos of actual people weren’t used in this story for their safety, so we told it through objects.
The cover shows a moment during the initial conflict and the spread shows the stillness after the storm. As the story progresses, however, there’s supposed to be a sense of hope — the plate is slowly repaired via kintsugi. It reflects the hope programs like DOVE bring to victims of domestic violence.
2022
Client: Vox Magazine
AD, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Text: Josie Crouch
Text Editing: Jordan Thornsbery, Rebecca Noel
Photo: Sam Koeppel
Video: Moy Zhong
Cover
Page Design
Page Design
The Missouri Rag
“Ragtime, a catchy, foot-tapping genre from the turn of the 20th century, can trace its roots and its biggest hits to Missouri.”
As a former pianist myself, I took inspiration from the books of sheet music I used to open at my piano bench in the opening and cover typography.
As for the following pages, I was particularly inspired by John William “Blind” Boone, a famous Black ragtime pianist and composer. When he played piano, he played with such gusto that people described keys “flying” when he performed. As the piece progresses, the askew keys are meant to reflect his fervor.
2022
Client: Vox Magazine, KBIA
CD: Makalah Hardy
AD, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Text: Evan Musil
Text Editing: Jordan Thornsbery, Rebecca Noel
Photo: Sara Williams
Audio: Xcaret Nuñez, Evan Musil
Page Design
Cover
The Tastemakers
About the up-and-coming diverse chefs in Columbia’s culinary scene.
For this series, I wanted to put the “chef before the food.” Of course, most food coverage puts a heavy emphasis on food photography. But because the emphasis in this story was the chefs over their food, I sought to use close-ups of their dishes as a “texture” that instead highlighted each chef’s portraits and culinary backgrounds.
2022
Client: Vox Magazine
CD: Makalah Hardy
AD, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Photo: Liz Goodwin, Kate Trabalka, Lucas Owens, Tanishka R
Photo Courtesy: Lily Dozier, Jan Sanchez
Text: Mikaela Schulter, Jordan Thornsberry, Max Shapiro, Jozie Crouch, Adrian Maddix, Rebecca Noel
Page Design
Cover
Reveal the concealed
The True/False Film Fest is back and beckoning visitors to explore the “In/Visible Villages” around them.
The creatures in this spread, in-line with the festival’s theme, are meant to look as if they’re camoflaged in a mystical and magical world — like the one used in the festival’s promotional material by Xinmei Liu.
2022
Client: Vox Magazine
AD, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Photo: Hunter Pendleton
Text: Erik Galicia, Bradford Siwak
Page Design
Weathering the storm
Missouri is a fraught hotspot for natural disasters in the wake of climate chage. Are we prepared?
Throughout this design — from the cover to the end of the package — the colors change from a bright blaze to a gassy green and murky darkness, which reflects the changes you’d see in the sky in the from the start to end of a natural disaster.
The opening spread and cover depict one of the most iconic Missouri landmarks: the capitol building. Drawings of archictecture are important to this package; in photo illustrations throughout the spread, depictions of what structures used to stand in lands affected by natural disasters punctuate what people have lost due to a lack of state preparation.
2021
Client: Vox Magazine
AD, Illustration, Photo Illustration: Moy Zhong
Photo: Zachary Linhares, Matt McCabe
Text: Katelynn McIlwain, Anneleen Opphoff, Julian Nazar, Rashi Shrivastava
Text Editing: Courtney Perett, Hannah Gallant
Cover
Page Design
Page Design