Design and Illustration Portfoliio by doris lau

“Searching”, Procreate, 2023

Doris Lau Design Portfolio

Graphics | Visualisation | Illustrations

Selected Work 2017-2025

Proposals for LEGO®

Commercial

Design

Digital Technical Drawing

& Freehand Illustrations

Inspirations with LEGO®

/ concept building / mock-ups / presentations

Building the StoryBooks

Building the StoryBooks is a series to demonstrate the posibility of merging 2D visual input from books to 3D imagination using LEGO® Bricks. By utilising the exisitng system and the bricks, stories created by LEGO is further eleborated. The proposal shows the thinking process from brainstorming, design and execution in the market.

In a Department Store, I asked my niece, “Do you want Toys or Books?”

the Nine years old girl replied, “Can I have both?” OH yes!

WHY NOT BOTH?

According to the study of Friedrich Froebel, “Children should be encouraged to think for themselves”.Children are free to move to where they need to go, and they are envouraged to be as self-sufficient as possible. LEGO® serves this mission in different dimensions.

This proposal hopes to give “loose part play” conditions to kids and adults where there are a simple frame from the books and stories which help one to develop the imagination without boundaries. It is a guided but also free exploration through LEGO® Bricks.

Stage 1 Stage 2

Research & Concept

Moodboard & Guiding Questions

Stage 3

Concept & Objectives

How does it work?

The Book:

(A) Dettachable book base with embedded LEGO® baseplates or slots for attaching bricks.

(B) Each page or chapter includes a “Build This!” moment.

The Bricks:

(D) Small, themed brick packs for each story (fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, mystery, etc.)

(E) Include mini characters, props, scenery pieces

(F) Optional stickers or printable flags, signs, etc.

Image partially generated by ChatGPT

Usage Mock-up

Stage 4

Resources taken from Studio

Product Mock-up

Stage 3

The Gardening Book

The Exploring Book

2 PLAY WELL BUILD BEYOND

LEGO® Daily

LEGO® Daily is a proposal to elaborate LEGO® through kids’ toys, to adults’ love, and further to daily utilities in different scales. By using the concept and system of LEGO, the connection between bricks is further elaborated through decomposing, scaling, multiplying and modelling in existing furniture and household tools. It aims to bring both fun , aesthetic and function to LEGO® lovers.

The first step is to analyse the element of a piece of LEGO® brick. Using a piece of 2x4 Basic Brick as an example, it is dived deep into the size, materials, structure of the bricks. It is further deconstructed into different parts for re-imagining the possibility of forming LEGO® furniture. A mock-up of LEGO® wooden components is created to build a simple table. The wooden parts form a new solid and void relationship in a piece of LEGO®, and with the help of the studs having transformed into columns, the LEGO® bricks could be further developed.

The idea of LEGO® Daily begins with “PLAY’. It shows the understanding from the current LEGO® sets, created for kids and adults in different scales and components, catering the imagination and needs of different users. It is poetic that everyone needs LEGO®, and growing with our own ages, LEGO is still the same but growing into different roles and meaning in our lives.

Zoom in to the solid and void relationship in LEGO Bricks

BUILD CHildhood TO ADULTHOOD

FROM AN IDEA TO EVERYDAY USE

The transition of “PLAY” to “BUILD” indicates a change in scale, purpose, structure and materials of LEGO® Bricks. As a proposal introducing the possibilities of having LEGO® in daily uses, a piece of 2x4 Basic Brick is deconstructed and re-constructed to make a new set of table. It is un-resolved in many sense but the idea could be further investigated and tested in real life.

(A) The possibilities of using wood to create sold and void relationship in LEGO® Bricks.

(B) Decomposed elements taken from the exisiting studs and hallow walls.

The LEGO® Daily Study Desk Mock-up

Commercial Design

dough & mough

In 2023, dough & mough was officially registered as a small online business in Denmark in selling pastries. Founded by my French friend and myself, our designs and products aim to promote a fusion of French and Asian styles. The brand allows me to experiment all kind of digital drawing tools including Adobe Suits Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate and Blender.

Product & Packaging Mockup

Visualisation on Blender (ongoing)

Unique By Grace | Unique Café

Logo / Trasnformed from 2022 to 2023

Interior Design / Constructed

Opening Event / 1st March 2024

Social Media Layout

Unique By Grace received a charity funding to expand its store to a coffee shop in 2023 June. As one of the voluntary co-founders of the project and a designer, here is my work and proposal for Unique Café

GraceKbh Blå Kors Denmark

#E2C9AB

#FAC02C

Coffee for Two

a cup with a purpose

Mood Board Exercise

Product Mock-up |

Coffee & Coffee Beans

Referencd from online images, the design ideas are to create a clean and eye-catching packaging for the coffee beans as a re-branding strategy to sell coffee beans from donations.

Digital Technical Drawing

Santa’s Cocoon

A Project Dedicated to Our Mother-Earth

/Story/

We hereby introduce the new toys producing system at Santa’s toy workshop. Kids visiting him could collect natural resources and put them into the machines to produce Christmas gifts. these toys would contain the smells and textures of nature. I hope that this could encourage children to enjoy being in nature.

/Design/

To fight against climate change, we introduce the terrace system found in Igloo in Santa’s house. The warm air from the fire place would rise to the middle and upper level to create a warm space.

Also, we connect the space to facilitate linkage between programmes. The main activity space is linked with other functional space so that a clear pathway is created. the domeshaped rooms form a cozy space.

The prjoject aims to provide a playful and sustainable library for busy city context. We interpret library as a mobile and reachable facility where people can escape from busy life to enjoy some reading moments alone or with other people.

Dear Grandpa

Non-Architecture Competition 2019 / Dying

Finalists

#FamilyRoot #DNAncestry #DigitalUrn #RememberMe #WeLove

This project proposes an alternative of reconstructing the genealogical topography of the city, by decoding DNA sequencing of a deceased person remains. Death isn’t an end, but a continuation of spirit in a family.

After cremation, ashes are analysed for its sequencing. The nucleobase codes get decoded into binary code that can be translated into a digital signal. Our portable digital urn allows an individual to trace his/her family history across the world, e.g. cross-national for people of mixed ethnicity or complex immigration background.

Families can worship the deceased members not only in their homes, but also in inflatable ceremony space installed in leftover areas (e.g. under bridges and flyovers), as a holistic, operational gathering space, softly lighting up for their deceased loved ones. Once it is occupied, an overview genealogical topography of the world is displayed, and a family-specific signal will be emitted within the neighbourhood searching for counterparts, passing on the memorial of their related ancestors.

Teammates Victoria Dong & Michael Ng

里弄 Li-Long is the most Traditional Chinese and Shanghaiese

Housing Community found in Old Shanghai District. Houses are alligned on the two sides of the allyways and form lines of regular patterned communual space. As the city develops, high-rises are built on the surrouondings of these communities or simply replace some communities.

Hoping to sustain the communual spirit found in Li, shared spaces are designed as plug-ins to high-rises. It is a sanguine concepts and experimental project that applicable to residential towers.