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Ron Tau

@rontau

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• Designer
• Founder, Creative Director @meat.studio
• Toronto. New Haven. Beijing. Hong Kong.
• Yale gd mfa

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Convo w/ Ron Tau @rontau

Q: You seem to (re)charge your work with a sense of novelty by deliberately integrating a certain uncouthness and nonsense into the objects you create. (i.e. printed type adorned like clothing tags, plastic cybernetic cell structures that act as rainsticks, responsive web-based type that jumps with every decibel) Can you describe whether this choice aims to de-bias or is an absurdist musing?

A: It’s as important to me to debias as it is to muse, and to be taken and led by musings. The most serious people tend to be the funniest, and vice versa. I am inspired by both and would like to create work that embodies both rigor and absurdity.

Q: Can you reflect on your position regarding amateurism and play after more than a decade in design? Think Ed Fella’s exit-level designer.

A: I feel largely the same about design as when I started. I find my cynicism rarely gets in the way when I want to make something, and I’m not too bothered about the discourse around what design can and cannot do.

Ed Fella is one example of a designer I admire who has created for more than 3 decades, and no adverbs necessary because the act of constant creation speaks for itself. Rick Poynor once wrote that Ed’s work is the product of a unique mentality, that it is utterly obsessive, and that art is always obsessive—that it is this relentlessness of an entirely self-chosen enterprise that helps to set the activity apart as “art.”

I paid my dues to my relentless obsessions every day for more than a decade and will do so for decades to come. taken in Yale School of Art by @rontau

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a month ago

y1 ✅ the unbearable lightness of being in grad school taken in Yale School of Art by @rontau

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4 months ago

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6 months ago

同。不同。Radicals of characters were switched around, then obscured, to mean more or less the same thing. That we are siimlar, tgother, and have much in cmomon.

Designed for @radicalcharacters and on display at @marylandinstitutecollegeofart and previously @otiscollege and Shanghai Research Institute of Printing Technology by @rontau

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a year ago

Poster Design for “Sketch Breaks” @yaleschoolofart

TODAY! Tues., Oct. 14, 4-6PM — Loria Rooftop with @bymarfigueroa , Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘26

Tues., Mar. 10, 4-6PM — 36 Edgewood Ave., 4th floor stairwell with @siyuseesee , Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘27

Drop-in any time and come sketch with us! Open to the Yale community and all experience levels.

Poster design: @rontau taken in Yale School of Art by @rontau

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a year ago

Bye Louis. My best boy. There are no words.

You left a hole in my heart and it feels warm.

I am humbled by how much I love you. I will always say your name. Louis my forever best boy. by @rontau

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2 years ago

🌹 2024 I have all the time in the world if I’d just do the thing already. 2025 don’t spend another year not doing what you’d rather be doing. 📷 Autoboy Tour 🇨🇦🇰🇷🇭🇰🇨🇳🇯🇵 taken in Toronto, Canada by @rontau

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2 years ago

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3 years ago

immortalized by @rontau

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4 years ago

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. by @rontau

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4 years ago

A few weeks ago I gave a talk at Design Thinkers conference, Canada’s largest annual graphic design conference by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD).   I talked about designing visual identity across cultures, and finding belonging through design as a multicultural designer navigating different cities and cultures.
 Beyond grateful for this experience and looking forward to next year!   #RGD #RGDDT #designthinkers #graphicdesign #designconference taken in Meridian Hall by @rontau

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4 years ago

Guess which one the client chose.

Hypnagogia. In transition between wakefulness and sleep. by @rontau

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4 years ago