Hi! I'm Karlie, a Beijing-born, Boston-based creative technologist, designer, and front-end developer. Currently working with types, graphics, data, and software at Fathom Information Design, and as a New Inc year 12 member.

Also exist as a textile/media artist, most of my installation work are documented here at theunthoughts.com.

I am curious and passionate about ways to challenge information hegemony, technocratic systems, and inequities in access. Growing up in a developing country that has now turned into a restless techno hub, I've witnessed how the technologies we live by today have changed the lives of children, households, and grandparents, or homeless people, aunties from street markets, my middle school classmates. These experiences have made it impossible for me not to care about those who, as I once was, grew up with access to only a thin slice of the Internet, who did not have the opportunity to learn how to code, think critically, or how to channel the power of big tech to those who need it most. All the work on this website extends this care by a little bit.

Much of my work involves text and words, but recently I've been thinking more about digital tool-making, metaphors in coding, and maps. Recent joy also includes doing some live coding on strudel.cc.

As a designer, I favor designs with thoughtful color palettes, rich interactivity, and keyboard accessibility (need to get better with this!). Visually, I'm drawn to abundance over minimalism, or elegance supremacy. I gravitate towards styles inspired by dithering, halftone and other printing techniques that celebrate textural decay.

I lived in Hong Kong for a while and really enjoyed the walk from IKEA Sha Tin to the MTR. I didn't take that walk very often, but I think about it a lot.

I'm always excited about commission/collaboration.
Reach me at karliezhao01 [at] gmail [dot] com