12th United Designs Biennial 2025 Online
Online exhibition opening_Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 10:00 pm China
4th Messages to Humanity
Poster Exhibition
Our world faces numerous challenges, often arising from the tendency to prioritize personal ambition over the principles of love and forgiveness. By fostering dignity in our interactions, we can cultivate genuine connections and create supportive communities where all members can thrive. Embracing these values promotes collective healing and strengthens bonds through love and understanding.
This exhibition aims to share heartfelt messages that emphasize love and forgiveness while promoting community cohesion and harmony. We celebrate the unique values and contributions of all individuals by presenting compelling visuals that highlight our shared humanity. Each poster will showcase inspiring quotes from diverse cultures, emphasizing the importance of love and forgiveness, along with unique typography that reflects our global diversity.
We encourage attendees to reflect on our shared experiences, practice kindness and generosity, and contribute to creating a safer world for future generations.
Keynote Presentation
Date & Time: Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 10:30 pm China
The Lines That Heal: How Illustration Nurtures Empathy and Community
Speaker: Wenjia Wang
Illustrator, Visual Artist, and Visual Storyteller
New York, USA
In a world where ambition often overshadows compassion, how can visual storytellers help us rediscover the simple yet profound values of love, forgiveness, and dignity? As image-makers, we hold the power not only to depict but to translate emotion—to turn intangible feelings into shared visual language that transcends words.
This keynote explores illustration as a bridge between design and emotion—a practice that goes beyond decoration to become a medium of empathy and reflection. Through symbolic imagery, layered narratives, and cultural motifs, illustration invites viewers to pause, feel, and connect. It can visualize forgiveness as a gesture, portray love as resilience, and depict community as an evolving canvas of stories. While graphic design often focuses on clarity and function, illustration introduces ambiguity, warmth, and humanity—qualities essential for healing and understanding. Together, they can create visual messages that not only inform but transform the audience’s inner world. In this session, Wenjia Wang will share her creative process of using illustration to explore emotional depth and collective memory. Drawing from her visual research and personal projects, she reflects on how storytelling through imagery can nurture empathy, bridge cultural divides, and inspire shared reflection in a fragmented world. This talk invites designers and illustrators to reconsider their role as facilitators of connection—how can we use our creative tools not merely to communicate ideas, but to cultivate compassion and community in the visual language of our time?
Online Opening Event
Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 10:00 pm China
10:00 Welcoming Remarks from the President of UDA, Zhiyong Zhao
10:15 A Message from the Chief Director of United Designs Biennial, Juergen Hefele
10:30 Keynote Presentation, TBA
11:30 Gallery Talk, Sarah Meyer (UDA VP of Design Education)
12:30 Closing Remark, Jorge Pereira (UDA VP of Design Ethics)
12:50 Farewell
Chief Director: Juergen Hefele
Directors: Jorge Pereira, Sarah Meyer, Robert Grame, Xupeng Yao
Advisors: Albert Choi, Kelly Salchow MacArthur, Robert Hower
Event Identity: UDA Headquarters
A Message from the President of UDA
Zhiyong Zhao
Welcome to the 12th United Designs Biennial 2025 Online Exhibition.
This year’s exhibition, themed “Love and Forgiveness,” brings together designers from around the world to explore shared human emotions and address contemporary challenges through the power of visual design.
Design has always been a collaborative process; it fosters a dialogue across cultures, helping to transform distance into understanding and indifference into warmth.
In 2025, we reaffirm our conviction that design, grounded in creativity and informed by education, can unite the world and uplift the human spirit.
Welcoming Remarks from the Chief Director of United Designs Biennial
Juergen Hefele
Welcome to our fourth Messages to Humanity poster exhibition—a heartfelt event where creativity and purpose come together. This year, we focus on the powerful themes of “Love and Forgiveness,” reminding us of what truly matters. Every two years, alongside the United Designs Biennial, we celebrate our existence and share messages that inspire and unite us.
In these times, the world needs more love, kindness, and forgiveness. These values are not just ideals but guiding forces that can heal, transform, and lead us toward a future where humanity and nature thrive in harmony. When we act from a place of compassion, we become part of something bigger, inspiring positive change in ourselves and those around us. Love is our greatest gift, and forgiveness is its gentle companion. Together, they highlight our shared humanity, our profound connection to the earth, and the limitless potential within us to create a world marked by understanding and peace.
As you explore these beautiful posters, please take a moment to reflect on the messages they convey. They are not just works of art but reflections of hope, unity, and the power we all possess to shape a more loving world. Let’s cherish this journey together and nurture our planet for ourselves and future generations. When we choose love and forgiveness, we choose a brighter future for everyone.
Gallery Talk
Speaker: Sarah Meyer
The exhibition showcases positive quotes from diverse cultures, emphasizing the importance of love and forgiveness. Each poster boasts unique typography that celebrates global diversity. We encourage attendees to reflect on our shared experiences and to embrace kindness and generosity, helping to create a safer world for future generations.
List of Selected Posters and Designers
| Designer | Poster | Country |
| Teija Hohl | Bud of Gold | Austria |
| ChenJie | 孔门仁恕·爱与宽途 | China |
| ChenZhaoGuo | 海纳百川 | China |
| Jianzhong Niu | 《善》 | China |
| Jisong Guo | 空 | China |
| Mengyao Ge | Love and forgiveness | China |
| Na Xu | Love and Forgiveness | China |
| QIUYU | “和” | China |
| Sihan Wang | Benevolence and universal love | China |
| Wang Dong | 仁容 | China |
| Xupeng Yao | UNIVERSAL LOVE | China |
| ZhangRan | 仁恕 | China |
| Jan Rajlich Jr. | UDA Messages to Humanity | Czechia |
| Ferenc Kiss | Weöres Sándor | Hungary |
| Tomaso Marcolla | Trattative di pace | Italy |
| Goyen Chen | True Freedom is Built on Respect | Taiwan |
| Jie-Fei Yang | Yielding the Pear | Taiwan |
| Albert Choi | A Guiding Light, Part 1 of 3 | USA |
| Albert Choi | A Guiding Light, Part 2 of 3 | USA |
| Albert Choi | A Guiding Light, Part 3 of 3 | USA |
| Ananya Singh | Strength | USA |
| Hyena Nam | The Melody of Healing | USA |
| Jenny Kowalski | Forgiveness in the Labyrinth | USA |
| Kelly Salchow MacArthur | NO World War III | USA |
| Meaghan Dee | Feeding Children is Always the Right Choice | USA |
| Qichao An | Love, born of forgiveness | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | Power of Love | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | Colors of Kindness | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | The Alchemy of Love | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | From Bitter to Sweet | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | Unity Beyond Color | USA |
| Setareh Ghoreishi | The Alchemy of Love | USA |
| Veronica Vaughan | Hope Poster | USA |
| Kathiana Cardona | Frase de José Gregorio Hernández, el Santo de Venezuela | Venezuela |
