Altadena Rising
Art Direction, Public Landmark Design, Memorial Ceremony, Font Design, PhotographyIn Response to Fire
Altadena Rising is a multidisciplinary design project inspired by the Eaton Fire in January 2025. Witnessing the devastation so close to home, I began to question how design could offer more than form—it could offer healing. This project seeks to bring warmth, hope, and renewal to a community deeply affected by loss.
Light as Language
While walking through Altadena—a community deeply affected by the fire, I found a broken branch and placed a light where it had split—symbolizing warmth and resilience. I then transformed its form into a typeface, imagining it as a shared visual language for the community.
Sign of Home
I saw many hearths left standing alone in the ashes. Standing before them, I got a strong feeling of relighting them—to bring warmth back. Inspired by the way wood is stacked in a hearth, I arranged letters in a similar structure. That’s where the idea of creating a landmark for Altadena began.
Relighting the Memory
Realizing that home holds memories, not just space, I created a memorial ceremony using translucent paper printed with images of what was lost. using light as a pen, I wrote the word “RE”—Re-ignite, Re-grow, Re-know, so those memories can shine beyond loss, into reality.
