Artwork for the 2024 calendar for FAR–NEAR, a curated cross-cultural book series broadening perspectives on Asia through image, idea, person, and history. The open call focused on the themes of the “Nāga” dragon (the protective water serpent), fire, water, power, honor, luck, and imagination.
Commissioned by
FAR–NEAR
Services
Selected, All, Text & Image
Industry
Arts & Culture
Collaborators
–
Year
2024
Location
United States & Worldwide

This piece features three sayings about water, drawn from Chinese, Hong Kong, and Japanese cultures. Each offers a poetic perspective on adaptability and on our capacity to emulate water as a philosophy for living — an excellent resolution for approaching 2024 with more calm and creativity. The dragon-shaped letterforms embody a powerful, motivating energy to celebrate the new year.

The composition's dynamic, postmodern rhythm echoes the vernacular visual landscape of major Asian cities such as Tokyo or Hong Kong, as well as a reimagined newspaper layout.

Théo Marielle Trần is an independent designer and educator based in Lyon, France, specializing in identity and type design. Research-driven, he builds visual languages — exploring writing systems, cultural references, and narrative structures across print and digital.

Théo Marielle Trần is an independent designer and educator based in Lyon, France, specializing in identity and type design. Research-driven, he builds visual languages — exploring writing systems, cultural references, and narrative structures across print and digital.
Since 2023, he has been teaching cross-disciplinary design courses at STRATE, School of Design, and mentoring diploma projects. He holds a BA in Visual Communication & Graphic Design from ÉCAL and maintains an active research archive on Are.na.
Beyond commissioned and personal work, he cultivates spaces for reflection, gathering, and sharing, as well as other side quests — to be found here.
Services
Branding
Visual Identity
Art Direction
Type Design
Film Titles
Editorial
Campaign
Website
Social Media
Teaching
Courses & Workshops
Narrative Design
Signs & Interaction
Creative Watch
Design in Movement
Art Direction
Low-Tech Graphic Design
Micro-Publishing
Collaborators
Made with Lay Theme. Set in Polymath.
© 2026 Théo Marielle. All rights reserved.