Meng Chih Chiang

About

Meng Chih Chiang is an award-winning artist, designer, author, and educator based in New York City.

Meng is the Creative Director of her studio, Mengdom Design Lab, and been a Adjunct Professor in the MFA Computer Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York since 2016. Her clients include many well-known brands, such as, Nokia, M·A·C Cosmetics, League of Legends and Nike.

Meng was born in Pingtung, Taiwan. Due to family economic hardship she began learning art in her childhood by self-teaching. In 2005 she graduated with the honor of first-place from an art-specializing class at National Pingtung Senior High School where she received a three-year full scholarship. Meng was later accepted to the BFA program in Visual Communication Design at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), as the recipient of Merit Scholarship. During college years she actively explored a great diversity of graphic design and self-learned front-end programming. Upon graduation from NTNU, Meng was hired as a web designer at Medialand, one of the top digital design agencies in Taiwan.

In 2011, Meng received a Government Scholarship of Taiwan to come to study at School of Visual Arts (SVA), MFA Computer Art in New York, concentrating on interactive art of interface, infographics and internet. Other Scholarships include Matching Outside Scholarships, Lab Assistantship Scholarship and Academic Excellence Scholarship at SVA. During graduate years in New York, Meng remained financially independent for her tuition and living expenses. In 2013, she graduated from SVA with Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for exceptional achievement in Computer Art.

Meng’s artwork — “A Stranger to Words” has been recognized by many top awards, including Red Dot Award, Macao Design Biennial Award, The Lumen Prize, Adobe Design Achievement Award, Google Chrome Experiments and has been featured in exhibitions worldwide. She has also set up a solo exhibition in Taiwan, followed by a series of lectures and workshops. In 2015, the US government issued Meng an Extraordinary Ability Green Card (EB1-A) which recognized her achievements at the top level of design field.

During her professional years, Meng has paid off forty-five thousand dollars of student loan for her master degree at the age of 27. Later she shouldered the financial burden of her entire family including the medical expenses of her parents in Taiwan. One of her dreams is to improve her family’s financial hardship for a better living.

In 2018, She published her autobiography “The Spirit of Undefeated” which told the story about how she overcame the long-term depression and how she embraced the imperfection in life. In addition, she was nominated for the Author of the Year of Eslite Bookstore Annual Award and was invited to many broadcasts, TV programs for exclusive interviews, and gave public speeches to high schools, colleges and listed companies.

江孟芝，台灣屏東人，旅美設計師、作家、跑者、紐約視覺藝術學院研究所兼任教授。

母親一人獨立撫養三個小孩長大，家境困苦無法學畫，但天生對藝術有執著與熱情，從小每天到書店翻書自修學習。高中就讀國立屏東高級中學美術資優班並獲得三年全額獎學金，2005年以第一名成績畢業，推甄錄取國立臺灣師範大學美術系設計組。大學其間作品屢獲國內重要獎項的肯定，包括台灣海報新星獎, 行政院多元就業開發方案行銷計畫創意競賽, 春風金盒獎包裝設計大賽, 時報金犢獎及法蘭瓷設計行銷創意大賽。畢業製作以『艸字部』獲得師大畢業展銀奬與典藏獎，作品為校方所收藏。

2011年，她考上教育部留學獎學金，並同時申請上紐約視覺藝術學院(School of Visual Arts)、普瑞特藝術學院(Pratt Institute)、加州藝術學院(California College of the Arts)以及薩凡納藝術設計學院(Savannah College of Art and Design)，最後決定至全美排名第七的紐約視覺藝術學院攻讀電腦藝術碩士，師事知名藝術家與教育家Bruce Wands、Joshua Davis和Kurt Teske。

隻身赴美期間堅持自己負擔所有生活費與學費，一面在紐約接案生活，一面在學校精進專業領域，不花家裡一分一毛獨立克服留學的經濟困難。旅美期間多次獲得奬學金，包括紐約視覺藝術學院書卷獎，紐約視覺藝術學院助教獎學金，紐約視覺藝術學院旅外獎學金，2013年更以紐約視覺藝術學院Paula Rhodes傑出成就獎畢業。

美國研究所畢業後，甫進入紐約設計公司工作。2014年，27歲以一己之力還清百萬留學貸款，隨後為中風的父親和骨折的母親籌措醫療費，一肩擔負起家計，在美國為台灣的家人打拼，立志改善家中經濟困境。工作中為知名國際品牌操刀，提供各項創意提案與視覺美學方案，客戶包含耐吉Nike、M·A·C彩妝、美國運通(American Express)等，並擔任線上遊戲英雄聯盟(League of Legends)官網使用者介面設計團隊的「設計主導」，是該遊戲互動設計和視覺美學的幕後推手。
曾多次於大型國際設計賽事中得獎，包括德國紅點傳達設計大獎、美國IDA國際設計獎、澳門設計雙年展銀獎、 義大利A’國際設計大賽、美國Adobe卓越設計獎、英國流明獎、Google Chrome創新實驗網站得主等，並出任多項設計大賽評審委員。2015年，獲美國政府核頒發具有國際級重大成就的傑出人才綠卡EB1-A。

她亦活躍於藝術展覽之中，曾受邀至全球最大的美國IEEE VIS數據視覺化研討會、曼哈頓大橋影像藝術投影展、與北非阿爾及利亞的Al-Tiba9國際當代藝術博覽會中展出，展覽遍及台灣、紐約、新澤西、中國、芝加哥、義大利等地。今周刊曾以《屏東女孩赴紐約追夢》作為封面專題報導，Cheers雜誌也以江孟芝為《2019最佳研究所指南》之封面人物。2018年皇冠集團出版她的個人自傳《不認輸的骨氣》一書。

目前為夢界實驗設計工作室創意總監，同時任教於紐約視覺藝術學院電腦藝術研究所。