Ashton Z. Shu
Also known as Mts Shu.
I’m a designer and a community gardener exploring how AI and human creativity can learn from each other.
My path into design wasn’t linear. I started in electrical engineering, studying in China and the US, then worked in hospital operations in Wuhan, including the front line of the pandemic. Working there, I learned how systems, people, and details connect. That mindset still shapes how I think about design today. Those pandemic years also wore me out and made me ask what I wanted my work to be, so I turned to design, something I’d loved since middle school. I wanted a career, not just a job.
Now, I’m growing as a graphic designer in Canada and helping build Superlinear Academy, an online community where people learn to think and create with AI tools, not just use them. We focus on building habits and mindsets that strengthen both logic and intuition. On paper, my title is Community Operations Officer, but we’d rather be gardeners than carpenters: a carpenter shapes things to a plan, while a gardener looks after the soil and lets people grow their own way.
Outside of work, I’m drawn to things that explore feeling and form: typography and visual storytelling, sensory design, mixology, and even Tarot.
There is an old Chinese saying I hold on to: Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles. What we see and do in person builds our skills, our mindset, and our creativity as much as what we read. Rick Rubin puts it well in The Creative Act:
Look for what you notice but no one else sees.
That’s why you’ll often find me in museums, at art fairs, or somewhere outdoors. I’m not much of a hiker, to be honest. Give me one good spot, though, and I’ll happily camp there all day.
I believe good design, like good conversation, helps people see things differently. The same is true of the tools we create with: the more thoughtful the dialogue, the more meaningful the outcome.
Résumé
Experience
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UI/UX Designer (contract), Cambrian College Research & Development
Designed the multi-agent interface and the design system for a client project.
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Freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer, MX Studio
Brand identity, campaigns and commissioned illustration for small businesses and online creators. Favourite projects include a brand system upgrade for Superlinear Academy (2026), streaming assets, character concepts and key visuals for Streamers Projects (2025 to 2026), and a poster for a Japanese bistro (2024).
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Community Gardener, Superlinear Academy
Run member support for a global AI learning community: welcome newcomers, answer technical and workflow questions, sort out access and refunds, and moderate posts. Helped run a 40-person meetup in Beijing in August 2026. Wrote the weekly newsletter until June 2026.
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RGD Designathon, hack4change, Civic Tech Moncton
Logo concept exploration and promotional cards, in a team of five designers over two days.
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Electrical Engineer, Union Hospital
Cut the hospital’s electricity use by 20% through infrastructure optimization, about CAD $3.2M a year.
Education
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Advanced Diploma, Graphic Design, Cambrian College
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WSET Level 3 Award in Wines, Wine & Spirit Education Trust
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M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan-Dearborn
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B.S., Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Skills
- Design
- Visual identity, campaign design, UX and UI, character design, digital illustration
- Tools
- Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Clip Studio Paint
- Technical
- AI-assisted design workflow, front-end prototyping, data analysis
Awards and leadership
- Second place, Red Team DefTech Hackathon, Ottawa, 2026
- RGD Student Committee member, 2025 to 2026