Jiakun Wang

Jiakun Wang works across commercial semiotics, cultural analysis, design ethnography, and trend innovation, with a focus on translating between meaning, design research, and future strategy. The brands and organisations he has worked with include P&G, L'Oréal, Audi, Marimekko, Arla, Mondelez, Unilever, and Danone, spanning health and beauty, food and beverage, luxury experiences, and mobility technology, helping teams turn complex cultural shifts into brand strategy, innovation direction, and experiential cues they can act on.

He holds a master's degree in International Design Business Management from Aalto University in Finland and a master's degree in Inclusive Design Strategy from Tongji University. He has been a guest lecturer at Tongji University's College of Design and Innovation and on the Interactive Media Arts (IMA) program at NYU Shanghai, and has designed and led guest lectures and workshops within Tongji's “Speculative Design and Design Fiction” course. He has also facilitated workshop sessions at Tongji's Future Making Symposium, and has spoken at Semiofest, the international gathering for applied semiotics, sharing his work in applied semiotics and research methodology with semioticians, brand-insight practitioners, and design researchers from around the world. In recent years, he has also taken part in a number of lectures and workshops on happiness research in the Chinese Mainland as a guest speaker and facilitator.