China News Agency, Guangzhou, September 28th: How to tell Chinese stories well in design language?
——Interview with Cao Xue, head of the design team of “Bingdundun”
China News Agency reporter Xu Qingqing
During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the mascot "Bing Dundun" not only set off a craze in mainland China, but also became popular overseas.
This phenomenal event caused by Chinese cultural and creative products makes people think about how the aesthetic language of design plays a role in the exchange and mutual learning of Chinese and foreign civilizations, in addition to vocabulary language, and what is the direction and trend of contemporary Chinese visual art design?
Recently, Professor Cao Xue, head of the design team of "Bingdundun" and former dean of the School of Visual Art Design of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxiwen" to analyze how to use design language to tell Chinese stories well.
The mascot "Bingdundun".
Photo by Chen Chuhong
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: What characteristics and trends are present in contemporary Chinese visual art design?
Cao Xue:
Contemporary Chinese visual art design usually takes more consideration into the appreciation habits of local people. Designers are good at using Chinese elements in the composition and layout of the design.
At the same time, in order to reflect more feelings, the designer will choose a variety of elements familiar to Chinese people at the same time, such as auspicious clouds, Ruyi, blue and white porcelain, Peking Opera masks, etc.
The most direct benefit of this approach is that it is convenient for the audience to understand, and it does not need to spend too much educational cost to tell the audience what the work wants to express.
But on the other hand, if the same elements are used and the artistic processing methods are roughly the same, it will bring about the problem of homogeneity of design works.
Taking Bingdundun as an example, there are three basic elements for the success of Bingdundun. The first is culture and the second is artistry.
Culturally, BingdunDun uses a familiar Chinese element - the panda, but our team put a lot of effort into the artistic aspect of the design.
Under the mutual blessing of culture and artistry, the third element of Bingdundun's success: commerciality.
The mascot "Bingdundun".
Photo by Hu Qingming
China News Service: What are the similarities and differences between Chinese visual art works and the West?
Cao Xue:
Actually, the way of thinking and expression is different, or the concept is different.
Chinese and Westerners look at the world, understand the world, and express the world in different ways, and the way visual art is expressed is different.
For example, Chinese "abstract" and Westerners' "abstract" are not the same concept.
Taking opera as an example, Western operas and classical paintings are in the same line of realistic styles. If an opera talks about a two-story building, it may really set up the setting of the building on the stage; if it wants to show the military , there may be a long queue on the stage.
But in Chinese Peking Opera, there may not even be a set on the stage, and there may only be three people representing the mighty army.
Another example is web design. The main expression method of western painting art is "focus perspective", so their expression method in web design is also focusing on one focus. The principle of design is that one page focuses on one problem, and the next problem goes to the next page.
Therefore, western web pages look relatively simple.
The art of Chinese traditional painting focuses on "scattered perspective" without a specific focus, especially for long scroll paintings like "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains".
Although the whole painting does not have a focal point, any part of it can be understood as a complete painting.
This artistic aesthetic is reflected in the design of web pages. I hope to use one page to explain everything clearly, so it looks like a lot of content and fullness.
With the advancement of science and technology and the changes of the times, China and the West have more and more common points in aesthetics and design styles, and Chinese art and design works are also easier for the international community to understand and love.
On February 20, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics figure skating performance was held at the Capital Gymnasium.
The picture shows "Bing Dun Dun" interacting with players from all over the world.
Photo by Mao Jianjun
For example, the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics abandoned the crowd tactics and became more simplified and conceptualized.
The design of Bing Dundun is also the same. Except for the panda itself, there is no traditional element familiar to Chinese people superimposed on Bing Dun Dun. It is a process of subtraction.
China News Agency reporter: What influence does the theory and practice of western visual art design have on the development of contemporary Chinese design?
Cao Xue:
This kind of influence is mutual, especially after the opening of the country, China and the world are connected.
Although it is said that all influences are imperceptible, but all influences start from the concept.
One effect is that the systems thinking concept changes single element thinking.
Today, technological advancements have brought about changes in communication, which in turn have brought new ways of telling stories and their visual presentations.
Taking LOGO logo design as an example, the requirements of the paper media era can no longer meet the requirements of the digital media era, because the current LOGO is dynamic and variable, breaking the thinking that the LOGO cannot be changed, and the color and font cannot be changed in the paper media era. The symbols of the visual elements become a whole visual system.
Many concepts in Chinese philosophy are also influencing the West.
For example, the concept of "Tao" means that there is no front or rear, or east, west, north, south, south, and the direction you face is called the front.
This is a very Chinese philosophical statement, which also makes Westerners reflect and think in a different position.
However, some of the current Chinese visual design works have lost the conceptual and abstract nature of Chinese philosophy, and only have elemental thinking.
This may be because a lot of commercial design, product design, including architectural design, the general trend is to pursue function, with practicality as the leading factor, aiming to quickly solve the current needs, so that designers have no time to think from a philosophical level, from a theoretical perspective. from the perspective of summarizing.
But it has been getting better in recent years, and it is still too late to adjust.
On the afternoon of February 8, Gloria Kotnick, the third runner-up in the women's parallel giant slalom snowboard at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, kisses the souvenir Bing Dun Dun.
Photo by Zhai Yujia
China News Agency reporter: You once said that "the highest Chinese design does not necessarily have Chinese elements". How can a successful Chinese visual art design not only reflect the Chinese style, but also conform to the world's aesthetic trend?
Cao Xue:
Design must not ignore service objects.
For the Chinese, the way people like to see is the best design.
For example, to design a set of tableware for Chinese people, there will be a long oval plate, which is for the needs of eating fish.
But the same plate, even if the design is very Chinese, will definitely be sold domestically if it is exported abroad.
Because westerners don't bring a whole fish to the table, they don't have the habit of eating fish like this, so they don't need such utensils.
Visual art design implies many psychological and cultural factors.
If it is indiscriminately communicated to foreigners with designs that Chinese people like, it is likely to have no effect, and even cause unnecessary misunderstandings due to cultural differences.
I have a basic requirement of "three degrees" of design.
First of all, design is always creative labor, so "innovation" is the first.
The second is "maturity". If the consideration is not comprehensive enough, it is not a good design.
The third is "completeness". If a piece of work is not complete enough, it will give people the feeling of "defectiveness".
On July 19, participating Hong Kong primary school students took a group photo with the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot "Bing Dun Dun".
Photo by Li Zhihua
China News Agency: The "Outside the Tower" design exhibition you planned has been successfully held for four times in London, Milan, Paris, Athens and Madrid. You say "different from lexical language, design is a universal language". How to use design, the universal language of the world, to tell Chinese stories well? What is the focus of further promoting the development of visual art design in contemporary China, and what difficulties need to be overcome?
Cao Xue:
Design is the most intuitive way of expression. Good design can directly hit people's hearts and change people's behavior.
Therefore, design is a kind of civilization and a kind of humanistic concern.
Designers can empower cities with their designs and make people's lives better in cities.
"Outside the Tower" design exhibition selects many works of contemporary Chinese architecture, products, video, animation, graphic design, cultural and creative products, etc., to visually present the contemporary Chinese lifestyle to the West, and tell Chinese stories in this way.
Why hold the "Outside the Tower" design exhibition?
Because misunderstandings and estrangements between people are caused by lack of understanding, but we cannot wait for others to understand us, we must take the initiative to do something to let others understand us.
But it’s not enough to just tell stories, you need to tell stories well, and design and art are the world’s lingua franca that can directly touch people’s hearts. Using design as a medium is one of the best ways to tell Chinese stories well.
The 2nd China (Nanjing) College Student Design Exhibition.
Photo by Su Yang
Designers in any country should look for the future from their past.
Many designers, in fact, do not really understand themselves.
To give two examples of design, such as the problem of blindly stacking Chinese elements in some designs, and some cultural and creative products, a large part of which has become cultural and creative stationery.
It is hoped that designers must really understand China and understand the real truth behind these elements from the history and culture.
Take Chinese scroll paintings as an example. In order to be fair to all audiences, scroll paintings must be placed in a long glass cabinet.
But the ancients of China looked at the long scroll paintings by moving them, turning the scrolls while watching them.
What is the logical and cultural relationship between the way the ancients read long scroll paintings and the way people read comics on their mobile phones today?
I hope that more people will study the things behind these cultural phenomena. This is interesting.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Cao Xue, former dean of the School of Visual Art and Design, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, deputy director of the Academic Committee; head of the design team for the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Bingdundun, and designed the first city image logo in Guangzhou And the image logo of Guangzhou Public Security, Asian Food Festival logo and so on.
He has won many awards such as German Red Dot, IF, IDEA, Pentawards, etc.
Committed to the reform and innovation of design education, and won the title of outstanding teachers in Nanyue and top ten designers in the country.
The "Outside the Tower" design exhibition has been successfully held for four times in London, Milan, Paris, Athens and Madrid, and insists on telling Chinese stories through design.