CASE STUDY · July 2026
400 Brands, One Person
What it looks like to serve hundreds of clients over two decades without ever building a team
The number surprises people. Four hundred brands across animation, media, art, design, and cultural production — all delivered by one person. No agency, no permanent team, no employees.
This is not a story about scaling. It is a story about something rarer: knowing exactly what you can do alone, and refusing to do what you cannot.
The Numbers Behind the Work
Since 2004, the portfolio spans three distinct phases:
Phase 1: DONGKOH Media (2004–2015)
Independent animation media, community events, and publishing. Built from scratch as a student project, grew into one of China’s most referenced animation platforms. Worked with animation studios, film festivals, and individual creators. Hundreds of interviews, event productions, and publications — all done with editorial independence.
Phase 2: Cross-Industry Practice (2010–2022)
Brand strategy, packaging design, visual identity, and content production for clients across art, technology, education, and consumer goods. The range is unusually wide — from contemporary art exhibitions to e-commerce packaging. The common thread is not the medium but the method: understand the person behind the brand, build from there.
Phase 3: Backwall Revival + TANXORA (2023–)
Returning to the original instinct: documenting artists, telling stories, building tools for independent practitioners. TANXORA is the English-facing platform. OWNLOG is the tool for independent work. Backwall remains the research and media studio.
Why No Team?
I get asked this question often. The honest answer: I never found a good enough reason to hire someone whose time I would have to manage.
Every client relationship taught me something. Every project added a new skill or refined an old one. Operating alone forced a discipline that a team might have diluted: say yes only when you can do the work yourself, at your standard, on your timeline.
This is not a prescription. It is a case study in one kind of independence — the kind that trades size for depth, leverage for control, and reach for attention.
This is the third in a series of introductory essays about the practice behind TANXORA. The first two: 22 Years of Independent Practice and The Backwall Method.