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Poster boy for international design
By Xu Wenwen |
August 16, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A Hangzhou native who studied and now resides in Germany has continuously been honored for his exceptional graphic design work. Xu Wenwen meets the Berlin-based graphic designer who continues to exert Chinese influences in his award-winning work.
From a freshman at an art college to an internationally awarded graphic designer, Germany-based Chinese-born He Jianping keeps receiving global prizes for his work at an average rate of more than one a year.
Originally from Fuyang, Hangzhou, He now works as a designer and publisher in Berlin, Germany. He studied graphic design at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, received his master of fine arts from Berlin University of Arts and completed his PhD in cultural history at the Free University of Berlin in 2005.
The 38-year-old's list of awards include first prize at the Lahti International Poster Biennial in Finland, the Golden Bee Award in Russia, silver prize at the International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, silver prize at the Hong Kong International Poster Triennial, the German Ruettenscheid Poster Prize in Essen and many more.
He designs books as well as posters, and one of his best-known book design works is the "Book with Ears" published in 2005.
The series has two volumes which are regular annual reports for Alliance Graphique Internationale, (a club for the world's graphic design elite, of which He is a member).
The two books respectively feature a left ear and a right ear, both in flesh color and realistic looking.
"Aware that the title of the book was 'New Voice,' I immediately imagined an ear hearing this 'new voice,' so I designed it," he explains. "And turning the pages of the ear swiftly shows people a mini cartoon."
As the cover has an ear on the spine, it proved difficult to find a binding technique that would work.
Therefore an old traditional Chinese binding method was used. Instead of being glued, the pages were punched and then bound with yarn.
Despite his abundant honors, He says he is a growing designer more than a mature artist, which in his eyes are two opposite professions.
"Graphic design, unlike creating artworks, is not that subjective and passionate but is logical, sometimes commercial," He explains.
This idea did not shape until he met Bruno Monguzzi, a Swiss graphic designer in 2001, who told him "graphic design is a science," He recalls.
"Monguzzi's works are succinct, calm and rational, and are methods of solving problems for clients more than artworks inspired suddenly, which have great influence on my works," He adds.
Since the designer refuses to be inspired by sudden feelings, he collects influence from all aspects of life, such as music, sport, cuisine and books.
"Enjoying life and viewing life from my own perspective help me design naturally," he says. "I actually don't have a specific design style, everything just comes to the paper naturally."
And his way to solve problems is quite distinctive. A couple of years ago, He was employed to design a commercial poster for a paper company in Hong Kong.
First, he refused the ordinary way to show how the company's papers could be printed in a variety of colors, but presented the papers in black and gray instead. He also featured images of nature - trees and mountains - on the poster, which are typically avoided by paper companies since they cut trees down to produce paper.
"It's useless to hide the truth that papers are made from trees, which is common knowledge to everybody, so I'd rather tell people paper is natural, which is way better than unnatural stuff, and I named the poster 'Human, Science and Nature'."
"Design doesn't mean selling a creation only, the most important thing of it, including in commercial promotion cases, is its thought and soul," he says. "Being capable of using some software does not mean one is a designer at all, but giving one's own views does."
Similar to his "Human, Science and Nature" poster that looks like a traditional Chinese drawing, a majority of his works feature strong Oriental characteristics. Some are like ink-and-wash paintings that use gradients of gray for shading, while others adopt Chinese elements such as rice paper and porcelain.
In his poster work "Yi Shu" (literally meaning art), both the yi and shu characters are respectively comprised of 75 overlapped yi and shu characters in different type fonts of 5 percent transparency, combining a digital design with graduated gray and black colors that feature in ink-and-wash painting.
And in the poster "New Face," exclusively designed for an international exhibition of young Chinese designers, He placed rice paper on a photo of a young Chinese female model, making the girl's strong Oriental characteristics stand out.
Living in Germany, He only comes back to China a couple of months each year, mostly spending time in his studio in Hangzhou's Phoenix Creative Park. However, he believes that living in Europe, instead of making him Westernized, actually drives him to be more Chinese when approaching his work.
"When I am far away from the culture of my mother language, the key part of the culture becomes clear and distinct in my mind, and its influence just comes into my design naturally," he explains.
From a freshman at an art college to an internationally awarded graphic designer, Germany-based Chinese-born He Jianping keeps receiving global prizes for his work at an average rate of more than one a year.
Originally from Fuyang, Hangzhou, He now works as a designer and publisher in Berlin, Germany. He studied graphic design at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, received his master of fine arts from Berlin University of Arts and completed his PhD in cultural history at the Free University of Berlin in 2005.
The 38-year-old's list of awards include first prize at the Lahti International Poster Biennial in Finland, the Golden Bee Award in Russia, silver prize at the International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, silver prize at the Hong Kong International Poster Triennial, the German Ruettenscheid Poster Prize in Essen and many more.
He designs books as well as posters, and one of his best-known book design works is the "Book with Ears" published in 2005.
The series has two volumes which are regular annual reports for Alliance Graphique Internationale, (a club for the world's graphic design elite, of which He is a member).
The two books respectively feature a left ear and a right ear, both in flesh color and realistic looking.
"Aware that the title of the book was 'New Voice,' I immediately imagined an ear hearing this 'new voice,' so I designed it," he explains. "And turning the pages of the ear swiftly shows people a mini cartoon."
As the cover has an ear on the spine, it proved difficult to find a binding technique that would work.
Therefore an old traditional Chinese binding method was used. Instead of being glued, the pages were punched and then bound with yarn.
Despite his abundant honors, He says he is a growing designer more than a mature artist, which in his eyes are two opposite professions.
"Graphic design, unlike creating artworks, is not that subjective and passionate but is logical, sometimes commercial," He explains.
This idea did not shape until he met Bruno Monguzzi, a Swiss graphic designer in 2001, who told him "graphic design is a science," He recalls.
"Monguzzi's works are succinct, calm and rational, and are methods of solving problems for clients more than artworks inspired suddenly, which have great influence on my works," He adds.
Since the designer refuses to be inspired by sudden feelings, he collects influence from all aspects of life, such as music, sport, cuisine and books.
"Enjoying life and viewing life from my own perspective help me design naturally," he says. "I actually don't have a specific design style, everything just comes to the paper naturally."
And his way to solve problems is quite distinctive. A couple of years ago, He was employed to design a commercial poster for a paper company in Hong Kong.
First, he refused the ordinary way to show how the company's papers could be printed in a variety of colors, but presented the papers in black and gray instead. He also featured images of nature - trees and mountains - on the poster, which are typically avoided by paper companies since they cut trees down to produce paper.
"It's useless to hide the truth that papers are made from trees, which is common knowledge to everybody, so I'd rather tell people paper is natural, which is way better than unnatural stuff, and I named the poster 'Human, Science and Nature'."
"Design doesn't mean selling a creation only, the most important thing of it, including in commercial promotion cases, is its thought and soul," he says. "Being capable of using some software does not mean one is a designer at all, but giving one's own views does."
Similar to his "Human, Science and Nature" poster that looks like a traditional Chinese drawing, a majority of his works feature strong Oriental characteristics. Some are like ink-and-wash paintings that use gradients of gray for shading, while others adopt Chinese elements such as rice paper and porcelain.
In his poster work "Yi Shu" (literally meaning art), both the yi and shu characters are respectively comprised of 75 overlapped yi and shu characters in different type fonts of 5 percent transparency, combining a digital design with graduated gray and black colors that feature in ink-and-wash painting.
And in the poster "New Face," exclusively designed for an international exhibition of young Chinese designers, He placed rice paper on a photo of a young Chinese female model, making the girl's strong Oriental characteristics stand out.
Living in Germany, He only comes back to China a couple of months each year, mostly spending time in his studio in Hangzhou's Phoenix Creative Park. However, he believes that living in Europe, instead of making him Westernized, actually drives him to be more Chinese when approaching his work.
"When I am far away from the culture of my mother language, the key part of the culture becomes clear and distinct in my mind, and its influence just comes into my design naturally," he explains.
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