NingDesign - Ning Zhang - Graphic Design

Redesigning "Same Money, Different Story": Public Health Poster Series

During my final semester at Algonquin College, our student team partnered with Ottawa Public Health to develop an awareness campaign on online problem gambling among young working adults (ages 22–35). With sports betting and casino apps on every smartphone, spending money online feels almost invisible. Without physical cash changing hands, casual $10 or $20 bets slip by unnoticed until they add up to real financial strain.

To help viewers connect digital betting back to real purchasing power, I designed a "This or That" visual series under the tagline "Same Money, Different Story." The concept places common gambling bets side by side with everyday purchases of the exact same monetary value. Each poster pairs two items with matching silhouettes: a ring of casino chips mirrors a glazed donut ("One More Try OR One More Bite"), fanned playing cards match fanned festival tickets ("Live Odds OR Live Music"), and a roulette wheel reflects a freshly sliced pizza ("Another Spin OR Another Slice"). Designed for busy transit stations, cafes, and gym locker rooms, the paired headlines deliver a clear comparison in under two seconds.

Why the Redesign

In our original handoff to Ottawa Public Health, the posters used flat vector illustrations. That compromise came out of team discussions, but the finished artwork felt sterile and clinical, more like an early pitch deck than an engaging public campaign. For my portfolio, I decided to rebuild the series from scratch to give the campaign the visual depth and warmth it needed.

First, I reworked the graphic structure. In the original version, the two items sat on flat white bars. In the redesign, I reshaped those bars into angled arrows meeting at the central "OR" transition. That shift turns a static layout into an active choice between two diverging lifestyle paths. I also adjusted the typography hierarchy and rebalanced the footer lockup (the tagline, Ottawa Public Health logo, and QR code) so the entire composition feels clean, grounded, and print-ready.

Finally, I replaced the flat vectors with photographic cutouts and soft drop shadows. Using photos of real objects makes the trade-off tangible: viewers can easily picture tasting a glazed donut or holding festival tickets. Against the saturated background colors, these familiar items sharpen the contrast between betting alone on a phone and engaging with everyday life. That tactile warmth helps the work connect in real social settings, as seen in the local cafe mockup below.

Before: Original Deliverable (Vector Edition)

Early Sketches (Archived Directions)

Ottawa Talks: Studio Poster & Visual Identity

I designed this promotional and studio poster for Ottawa Talks (渥談會 / Chinese Voices in Canada), an independent interview show hosted by my youtuber friend Frank. The series documents personal stories and conversations with members of the Chinese community across Ottawa and Canada.

To anchor the show to the city, I chose Ottawa's most recognizable landmark: Parliament Hill and the Peace Tower. Instead of using a standard color photograph, I used Nano Banana to convert the architectural shot into a high-contrast, black-and-white ink print style. Removing photographic clutter gave the masonry an editorial, woodblock-print feel suited for thoughtful, long-form discussions.

The main design challenge was weaving the English title directly into the building. Rather than placing text as a flat overlay, I broke the red letterforms apart and layered them through the architecture: the letters of "Ottawa" weave in front of and behind the Peace Tower, while the elongated stem of the "T" in "Talks" drops through the stone facade. Interlocking the red letterforms with the monochrome stonework adds visual depth, making the show's name feel built into the landmark itself.

The Chinese title anchors the upper left, while the bottom section arranges the bilingual subheadings, host credit, and four platform icons (TikTok, YouTube, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu). The finished design was printed, framed, and mounted on set as the physical backdrop for recorded interview episodes.

Final Poster Design

In-Studio Placement: The framed poster on set as an on-camera backdrop during a recorded episode of Ottawa Talks.

Early Concept

Mobius

"Mobius" was my final project for the Level 1 Digital Graphic course. I spent more time on it than I would on a normal assignment because the idea was personal. That is why I chose to include it in my portfolio.

A Mobius strip forms a loop with no clear beginning or end. For me, the loop shows the fear of getting stuck in a life where every day feels the same. A few years ago, the pandemic, losing my job, and a painful breakup left me feeling that way. I had no clear direction. I often imagined myself as an astronaut trapped in a spaceship, living the same day again and again, like "Groundhog Day" in space.

My life did change in the end. New opportunities gave me a way to leave my old life and move to Canada for a fresh start.

Both astronauts in the poster are versions of me, and I placed my face on each of them. One is caught in a mass of tentacles and pulled into darkness. He shows how hopeless I felt at the time. The other finds a way through the infinity symbol and reaches back to pull his past self out of the loop.

I generated all the elements with Midjourney, then arranged them in Photoshop across 27 layers. I based the look on movie posters from the 1970s and 1980s. The astronauts' poses refer to Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam."

This project still means a lot to me. I printed a copy and hung it on my bedroom wall.

Sad Rock

"Sad Rock" is a cartoon character I created. Its look was influenced by "The Simpsons" and the work of Peng Lei, my favorite Chinese artist and rock star. I drew the character in Adobe Illustrator and made parts of the background with Midjourney and Illustrator's AI tools.

I recently used Codex's custom pet feature to turn Sad Rock into a Codex Pet. Now it moves around, plays guitar, and keeps me company while I vibe code.
There is something really fun about seeing a character I drew back then come alive inside my coding workspace. It makes the whole experience feel a little more personal.