2026

Youbin Lee

I’m Youbin, an award-winning multidisciplinary designer based in London with over a year of professional experience. Through seven diverse design agency and in-house graphic design internships, I’ve built a versatile and well-rounded approach to design, gaining experience across various areas of graphic design. I primarily specialise in branding, packaging, and motion graphics, while also working across broader visual communication disciplines.

Glo

Glo is a social connection kit built around glow-in-the-dark experiences, designed to help people connect more naturally in darker environments. The project was developed in response to the growing rise of social anxiety, particularly among young people, and explores how changing the environment slightly could reduce the pressure people feel when socialising.

Research behind the project suggests that socialising in darker environments helps people feel more comfortable expressing their authentic selves. Instead of performing or presenting a curated version of who they are, people become more emotionally open and genuine. Building on this idea, Glo uses subtle glowing objects and shared activities to create a calmer and more intimate atmosphere for communication.

The kit includes glow-in-the-dark tools such as conversation starter cards, glow pens, glow clay, worksheets, and tape, encouraging interaction through playful shared experiences rather than direct social pressure. By shifting attention away from prolonged eye contact and performance, the project reimagines darkness as a space where genuine connection can emerge more naturally.

Packaging design for Glo, a glow-in-the-dark social connection kit designed to encourage more authentic interaction in low-light environments. Inspired by research around social anxiety and emotional openness in darker spaces.

Inside the Glo kit: six glow-in-the-dark items designed to reduce social pressure and encourage natural conversation through collaborative activities and shared focus.

All Glo assets are printed with glow-in-the-dark ink, transforming ordinary social activities into calming shared experiences in low-light settings.

Billboard Activation

Break

Break is a motion graphics film exploring the emotional contrast between burnout and rest. Inspired by the multiple meanings of the word ‘break’, the project visualises the overwhelming rhythm of overwork alongside the quiet warmth of relaxation.

The film translates emotional states into motion through colour, pacing, sound, and graphic systems rather than direct narration. Dense grids, repetitive structures, and layered movements represent pressure and mental exhaustion, while softer light, slower motion, and warmer tones express moments of pause and recovery.

Through abstract visual storytelling, the work reflects on the importance of rest within contemporary working culture and invites viewers to reconsider what it means to truly take a break.

Storyboard

Magical Matcha

To many, matcha is now a social media drink, something influencers queue for and consume on camera. Yet historically in Japan, it has always been something you make yourself, a drink defined not by where you get it, but by the act of preparing it. As a result, the playful delight of transforming powder into smooth foam is gradually being overlooked.

The previous design did not fully reflect this experience. This redesign celebrates the joy of creating a small moment of magic for yourself every day, built on a playful, more cohesive visual system that carries this feeling through every detail. At the centre of the identity is the spiral, inspired by the circular motion of whisking, placed at the forefront of the design to embody the very act of preparation. The spiral sets a magical mood throughout while hinting at the moment magic begins to spread. The whisk is reinterpreted not as a mere tool, but as the catalyst through which the consumer becomes the maker of their own magic.

This idea extends to the material. The spiral graphic and typography are printed on shimmering paper with selective gloss, so that as the angle of light shifts, the spiral catches and moves, mirroring the motion of the whisk in material form. The magic on the packaging is not static. It responds, just as the drink does.

Inside the box, recipe instructions previously presented as dense text were redesigned as illustrated guides, making the experience feel accessible and inviting to everyone. With 12 flavours to discover, each tin opens up a new taste to explore, turning every preparation into a new moment of magic.

This project reframes matcha from a trendy green drink into a magical experience you create yourself. A small, magical ritual embedded in everyday life.

Youbin Lee

Email address

Instagram

Web Portfolio

Biography