Grace Zhou: The feeling that never gets old
On making things that live in your head first.
The industry talks about Gen Z constantly. It talks to them less often, and listens even less than that. There is an entire apparatus built around figuring out what young people want, and almost none of it involves actually asking them. Grace Zhou is an art director at the start of her career with a visual instinct she did not learn from a brief. She knew what she liked before anyone told her what to like. That clarity shows up in how she works, what she notices, and what she refuses to let flatten into trend. This is what it looks like from the inside.
About Grace
Grace Zhou is an Art Director at Citizen Relations in Toronto, and the 2026 National Young Lions Silver winner. She comes from a strong visual arts background (dance, piano, painting) and has been building her practice around one belief she’s held since grade four: that the best feeling in the world is making something that only existed in your head and watching someone else want it.
This is a conversation about visual instinct, the taste you carry, and what it looks like to know what you like before you can fully explain why.
Can you tell our readers and listeners a bit about you?
Grace: My name is Grace. I'm an art director working in creative advertising, specifically in PR. I come from a strong visual arts background in dance, piano, and painting, so creativity has always been a central part of my life. That's what led me here. Outside of work, I'm also a professional daydreamer and a dedicated nail salon frequenter.
How would you describe your taste? And do you think other people would describe it the same way?
Grace: Honestly, pretty inconsistent. I like a little bit of everything and I'm always open to trying new things. How do you know if you like something if you haven't tried it? If I had to simplify it, I gravitate toward things that feel a bit more niche. Not niche in an exclusionary way, but things you don't see ten times scrolling through TikTok. Things you can't just buy off Amazon. That specificity gives something more charm. And I think people around me would agree. I always have something new to talk about or show off from my bag that week.
What have you been obsessed with lately?
Grace: I finally finished Attack on Titan. I watched seasons one through three years ago but dropped off at season four because it felt like a completely different show. Different characters, different energy, I just didn't care. But my friends kept pestering me to finish it, so I finally binged it a few weeks ago. It reignited my love for the whole thing. Confusing at times, there were definitely moments of whose side are we on exactly? But I'm glad I went back.
What is the first thing you remember loving that no one around you understood?
Grace: In grade four or five, we had a school project called Project Business where you had to create a product, advertise it, and sell it at a school fair. My best friend and I made these little 3D beaded charms I'd learned to make from YouTube videos. I remember everything: picking out the beads, choosing the colors, drawing the ads we'd tape up around school. At the fair, we were the only team that sold out. I was so proud. Looking back, I think I did most of the work, but at the time I was just having the time of my life. That feeling of making something and watching someone else want it never really left me.
Is there a connection between that experience and what you do now?
Grace: It’s exactly the same feeling. A spark of inspiration in my head, and then eventually getting to hold the actual thing and having someone else respond to it. Whether it’s paintings I’ve exhibited and sold, or ideas at work that get produced, it never gets old. I hope it’s something I never grow out of.
What’s the most popular piece of advice in your field that you think is just wrong?
Grace: I've heard that juniors, especially in creative fields, need time to develop their taste. But I've always pushed back on that. Young people are the tastemakers. There's a reason every brief and every brand is trying to reach Gen Z: they're the ones actively determining what's culturally relevant, what's in fashion, what's worth paying attention to. The idea that that instinct needs to be earned over time doesn't really hold up.
What’s something in culture right now that people are talking about for the wrong reasons?
Grace: The protein thing. Protein coffee, protein skincare, protein everything. It's become exhausting. It's a symptom of this broader wellness trend where nothing is allowed to just exist for enjoyment. Your coffee has to have adaptogens. Your smoothie has to have a function. But there's a real pushback happening. People trading the clean girl aesthetic for a spontaneous Tuesday night out, ditching the ten-step routine. There was a post I saw on Instagram where someone shared their smoothie and someone in the comments asked if it was for losing weight or gaining weight. Their response was just: purely for enjoyment. That felt like a cultural moment to me.
Can you recall something you made where the process completely surprised you?
Grace: I tried making press-on nails for a bit, and it was so much harder than I expected. The shaping, the layers, the UV lamp that wouldn't cure properly. I genuinely thought, I understand why this costs a hundred dollars now. It gave me a real appreciation for nail techs. Sometimes the most humbling creative experiences come from things that look deceptively simple from the outside.
What did you believe about work five years ago that you would argue against now?
Grace: I used to think that if an idea wasn't fully formed, it wasn't worth saying out loud. I'd hold back unless I had something complete and airtight. But working in the industry now, I've realized that half-formed ideas are often the most valuable ones to share. They spark something for someone else, they get built on, expanded. The idea doesn't have to arrive whole. That's what collaboration is for.
If someone went through your room, bookshelves or your search history, what argument would they make about your taste, and would they be right?
Grace: They'd think I can't pick a lane. Yoga mat next to a Lego collection next to a bartending set next to art books. Nothing cohesive, no singular aesthetic identity. And honestly, they'd be right. I'm in my twenties, everything is trial and error, and I'm genuinely open to trying most things. She does a lot of different things. That's the accurate read.
Is there a part of your professional identity that gives you something that you haven’t found anywhere else?
Grace: The space to make something that only existed in my head. There's still this part of me, the same part that was there in grade four, that sees a finished thing in the world and thinks: that was a PDF two weeks ago. I made that. No matter how many rounds of approval it went through, that feeling doesn't go away. Someone liked it enough to spend money on it. That never stops meaning something.
As a National Young Lions winner, is that changing anything for you?
Grace: It puts more eyes on you, which is great validation. Proof that your ideas land. But I don't think it changes how I think or what I put forward. If anything, it reinforced something: when you're working under pressure with limited time, you have to trust your instincts. Everything you've learned has prepared you for the moment. I'm glad to be a 2026 Young Lions winner.
Is there something you love that you haven’t found a way to use in your work yet?
Grace: All those niche aesthetics and designs I find while scrolling. Specific visual worlds that don't usually make it into briefs. I'd love to find a way to bring more of what I actually find interesting into the work. That's the version I'm still working toward.
Connect with Grace on LinkedIn and check out her portfolio.
cool guest! loved reading this