Li Zhiqian is an interdisciplinary researcher and practitioner who uses design as a point of departure. His works include typography research, graphic, spatial and product design, video production, writing, translation and curation. He is the project lead of Shanghai Type and TypeTour, and co-founder of 3type. He is a Research Fellow at Type Lab, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.
His research focus is the history of type production and type design in China from the late 19th century. For the Shanghai Type project, he has interviewed dozens of people and created an online archive. He is especially interested in urban typography and has been writing articles about the modernology of urban typography, organising city tours, editing and designing books to promote the awareness of city visual culture. Using Chinese characters as a medium, he participates in numerous art projects to explore the boundary of contemporary type design.