About

b. 1986, HK.

 
 
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Blessing Yen is a multi-disciplinary designer, filmmaker and artist with a decade of experience working in product design and systems thinking at the intersection of technology and the arts. She serves as Chief Design Officer for Seed&Spark: a platform that connects people through stories that matter and builds sustainability, equity, and community for all creators. She teaches about universal, human-centered experience design at USC. Her background is in branding, product strategy, and design + systems thinking; she specializes in human-centered design practices and is an advocate for the humane tech movement. She was previously the creative director of the film and culture print magazine BRIGHT IDEAS, and the Head of Product & Design of Yekra, an independent film distribution platform focused on cause-based documentaries.

As a filmmaker, in collaboration with her partner, James Kaelan, she has co-directed and produced, amongst other works: the immersive film/theater hybrid experience America the Beautiful (Slamdance ‘19, Cucalorus ‘18), the VR narrative The Visitor (Slamdance '16, SFIFF '16, AFI FEST '16), and the feature film EEL (AFF Wroclaw '14, Sarasota '15). She is also a writer and director for the award-winning adult sex ed series F*ck Yes. Blessing is also on the board of directors of Free Machine, a non-profit that aims to foment civic engagement and power shifts through both public policy and creative projects for a high-tech future that is equitable, abundant, and sustainable.

Blessing is also a ceramics and gardening enthusiast who hopes to become a National Geographic photographer in her next life. She is based in Los Angeles, California.


— CV available upon request.