Ping Xu was born and raised in Shanghai. He began his professional career and served as an Art Director, a Creative Director, and a Production Director in the Shanghai advertising industry since 1988. He began teaching at Kansas State University in 2003, continued his teaching career through the University of Southern Mississippi from the Fall semester of 2005, then through Truman State University in January 2010. Ping joined The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Fall 2015.
Ping’s expertise includes identity design, poster design, advertising design, interactive design, digital photography, and typography. Ping has been teaching visual communication design courses at all levels in the U.S. academic domain since 2005. His research interest is to create visual concepts through practical experiments and contemporary media and to deliver ideas that inspire, inform, or captivate consumers/target audiences.
Ping Xu received a total of twenty Bronze Awards in INDIGO Award International Design Annual Competitions 2018 in Amsterdam, 2019 in Malaga, and 2020 in Bangkok. He received a total of seven Silver and Bronze awards in the United Designs Alliance (UDA)’s International Annual Design Awards in Seoul 2018, 2019, and 2020. In February 2020, Ping also received an Honorable Mention of 2019 London International Creative Competition (LICC) in London. From 2007 to 2020, Ping received thirteen American Advertising Awards in ADDY Awards club competitions in Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. Ping has showcased many logos on LogoLounge.com, and his identity design was selected by LogoLounge Book 12 and will be published in November 2020. He also published ten works of graphic design and illustration in Volume-IX, Volume-VII, and Volume-XI of the International Contemporary Artists book in 2013, 2014, and 2016, and published seven graphic design works by UDA Annual in 2018 and 2019. In addition to every annual faculty show in UTRGV, Ping also submitted work to join some professional exhibitions. Some of his graphic design works were accepted by some national exhibitions in St. Louis Missouri, Naples Florida, and some international exhibitions in Korea, China, and Taiwan.
Ping Xu initiated the Cross Connections International Design Exhibition and curated it in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2018 respectively. As an international exchange program, the visual communication juried exhibitions represented significant overviews of international graphic design trends, featuring faculty and students works from many international institutions that were making their marks in the Visual Communication field within their respective countries. The participating institutions in past years were selected from the United States, Germany, Russia, Belgium, South Africa, Mexico, China, and Taiwan. In 2018, Ping curated the Cross Connections 2018 International Exhibition of Design & Illustration and collaborated with Brownsville Museum of Fine Art (BMFA) to showcase 96 works of visual communications and illustrations created by international faculty and students from ten participating institutions. They were The University of Texas Arlington (UTA); School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC); Central Academy of Fine Arts, China (CAFA); Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China (LAFA); Shanghai University, China (SHU); LUCA School of Arts, Belgium (LUCA); Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos Mexico (UAEM), Ming Chuan University, Taiwan (MCU), and National Design Institute at Moscow, Russia (NDI). The purpose of this exhibit was to give a cosmopolitan view of the most exciting new work in graphic media. Eight participating institutions exhibited the ninety-six works about two weeks on their respective campuses.
Ping Xu has been leading Study Abroad trips since 2011. After joining UTRGV, he led graphic design students to participate in an internship program through the UTRGV Study Abroad Asia program which enabled students an edge in the competitive job market and exploring Asia cultures. The internship companies were Ogilvy, TBWA, McCann, Leo Burnett, and Saatchi & Saatchi from 2011 to 2019.
Ping Xu is a member of Art Directors Club, New York, a member of Type Directors Club, (TDC), New York, a member of American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), a member of American Advertising Federation (AAF), and a member of United Designs Alliance (UDA). To maintain a professional practice, Ping works as a freelancer to help design many pro bono works for local communities, non-profit organizations, and international clients.