Sun Qiming, co-founder of JBQH Studio [PHOTO BY KUANG LINHUA/CHINA DAILY]

Sun Qiming and his colleagues achieved social media success with their uniquely formatted, yet insightful, posts. A book deal-and much more-soon followed, Yang Yang reports. 

Sun Qiming was about to graduate from Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in textile-and-fashion design in the spring of 2016.

Rather than seek employment, the 26-year-old talked to three of his friends-25-year-old Zhu Jian, who also was about to graduate, 26-year-old freelancer Mao Tianhua and 30-year-old Zhao Zhe, a PhD candidate studying biology-about starting a designer brand to popularize science in fun ways.

"WeChat advocates that every account-no matter how small-should have its own brand," Sun says.

"We initially wanted to design daily-use products to represent our ideas about lifestyle. So, we started a WeChat account to attract fans."