Kaming Lee is fascinated by the kinship between graphic design and stir-frying

Kaming Lee locates his practice somewhere in the rich history of the interplay between art and food. Specifically, the stir fry. He says: “The chef (designer) needs to handle one dish after another, with limited time or space to cater to nuance.” Like the foundation of any good weeknight stir-fry, his practice requires a sizzling hot wok “constantly searing the food in a super short amount of time”. As such, Kaming’s graphic elements are processed, contorted and reprocessed, swirling together and unlocking new flavours with each pass.

Inspired by the designer and art director David Carson, Kaming’s work is filled with sporadic typographic explorations. Grungy, distressed textures overlay text and images that have been cut, layered, and distorted with care – to bring out the essence of each individual component. As Kaming explains: “It needs to be cheap, fast, and satisfying.” It’s this state of flow that he finds both rewarding and challenging. “This way of working makes me come up with ideas and solve problems on the go. I force myself to work quickly and get out of my comfort zone,” he explains.

Guided by intuition and self-imposed time limits to mimic the “limited seasoning and dressing” of the Chinese classic, no two projects are the same. While Kaming says his design are often “a one-liner, mixing and repeating”, they’re anything but one-note. To drive home the parallels (in case it still hasn’t stuck) he channels core tenets of the stir fry: fresh, complex tastes, a reliable flavour base and a quick hand that keeps things moving to retain the nutrients of its ingredients. Delicious!