How to make a unique Chinese style in graphic design?

Because of the depth of cultural connotation and the rise of China's economic power, more and more designers will add Chinese elements to their designs to highlight the cultural advantages or to gain a sense of regional identity. But many of these designs are actually a narrow understanding of the Chinese style and are completely devoid of aesthetic appeal. Some students in China just collage several types of traditional Chinese elements into their works, making their designs unorthodox. In the following, we will start from the Chinese element of "Chinese Character" and combine it with the excellent works of some artists to explain how to create a unique Chinese style for you.

Chinese characters have always been a "variable" in graphic design because of the special nature of their strokes. Under the pen of painters and calligraphers in the past generations, the development of Chinese characters has been increasingly seeking for new changes, and has gradually formed a rich and dynamic use of these techniques, which are very good inspiration and reference for the creation of modern posters.

In the following, Kang Shishi will combine the above three points of "white space"-space creation, "traditional graphic symbols"-refinement of elements, "traditional graphic symbols" and "traditional graphic symbols"-refinement of elements, and "traditional graphic symbols"-refinement of elements.

By combining these three points, "white space" - space creation, "traditional graphic symbols" - element refinement, "Chinese characters" - text arrangement, we will discuss how graphic design creation can be integrated into the Chinese aesthetic interest.

Many students like to use addition when doing graphic design, but ignore the importance of white space, of course, this is partly due to the lack of aesthetic vision, the other part may be from the commercial point of view of the consideration. But it is precisely because in the plane space to create a serious lack of attention to the white space, so resulting in a large number of difficult to read, can not bear to read the emergence of graphic design.

Before creating a flat space, we must determine the theme, and according to the theme of the reasonable distribution of primary and secondary elements, speculate on the elements of the screen and the layout of the internal logic, and in the layout of the overall picture of the initial consideration of the white area, at this time, we need to consider two points:

Leaving too little white space will lead to overloaded screen content

Leaving too much white space, the picture is incomplete, as if the information

Of course, excessive white space is also a mistake, when the necessary components of the picture are removed, the overall message of the picture will become ambiguous, vague and unclear. So white space needs to be a reasonable balance between the presence and absence, the elephant and the elephant, the metaphor and the metaphor. And everyone as a graphic design creators, for the balance of the screen judgment, to control the screen white play a decisive role.

On the possibilities given to the picture by the white space, you can refer to the following:

Quality: noble, high-class, rich, luxurious, beautiful

Independence: abandoned, lonely

Lacking: lost, stolen, misplaced

Cleanliness: bleached, cleaned

Purity: immaculate, pure, natural

Heaven: pardoned, sacred

Open: distant, area, outdoors, endless

Tranquility: calm, undisturbed, inactive

Other: snow, sky, day, milk, marble, river, land, water, etc.

Summary: In graphic design the elements of the picture symbolize "there is for the "elephant outside", "elephant" tangible, and "elephant" outside the intangible, but "elephant outside" can represent all tangible things and intangible things. Kang Shi Shi personally believes that the most important thing is to "fully understand the inner connection between the elephant and the elephant, and use the elephant to express the elephant. It is the "elephant" that gives the "elephant outside" the space of imagination, if there is only the elephant outside, the picture is blank, the picture can not convey any information that the designer wants to express".

Traditional Chinese graphic symbols, all-encompassing, countless examples, I only cite examples to help you first understand that in fact, there are a lot of Chinese elements in the design can be used by everyone, do not be limited by the brain capacity before refining the elements, at a loss.

Examples:

Festivals: colleges and universities, rice dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, spring couplets, paper cuttings, lion and dragon dances, gongs and drums, firecrackers, and so on.

Daily category: chopsticks, gaps, fading, wooden combs, wine bottles, traditional furniture, wooden buildings, etc.

Culture: Chinese characters, calligraphy, Chinese painting, seals, stationery, guzheng, Go, root carving and wood carving, etc.

Scenery and ancient architecture: the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, famous mountains and rivers, the former residences of celebrities, the Great Wall, the Yellow Crane Tower, and the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County.

Tributes, immortals and monsters, historical figures: the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Book of Poetry, the Eight Immortals, Confucius and Mencius, the Four Great Masterpieces, etc.

In graphic design, traditional Chinese graphic symbols can be extracted and transformed into elements in the picture, which can intuitively embody the traditional Chinese aesthetic interests. And how to extract them is what Kang Shishi will talk about below.

With the following examples, we will show you how excellent graphic works refine and utilize traditional Chinese graphic symbols.

In graphic design, if you want to use calligraphy, you can understand the aesthetics and use of calligraphy from the following three aspects

1. The "lines" of Chinese calligraphy:

When ancient calligraphers wielded their brushes and splashed their ink, the lines would be sharp or slow, curved or straight, connected or broken, and the lines would be in a different shape. or straight, or even or broken, or virtual or real, or thick or light, the ever-changing lines create a staggered spatial layout, conveying a unique flavor of the Chinese mood.

In graphic design, we can combine various modeling techniques with the use of color, intentionally or unintentionally misplaced color blocks and lines, breaking the traditional painting according to the wire frame or rendering of the color expression of the way, so that the color blocks and lines become a free match with each other in the plane space elements.

2. "Potential" of Chinese calligraphy:

"Potential" is the bridge between calligraphy and meaning, and it is the sense of rhythm and rhyme in the change of strokes. In graphic design, the "potential" of Chinese characters will control the flow of the visual theme of the screen, with guidance, directionality and concentration. In the composition, the "potential" of Chinese characters can have a main and a secondary, an open and a harmonious, a tension and a relaxation, a gathering and a scattering, an urgent and a slow, a sparse and a dense.

3

3. The "space" of Chinese calligraphy:

While the expressive power of Chinese characters has certain limitations in the process of creating a two-dimensional plane space, if the configuration of strokes, thickness of lines, and style of fonts of Chinese characters are rationally arranged, and the width, height, and spacing of the characters are appropriately adjusted. Through the reasonable configuration among the visual elements, the overall wonderful presentation of the picture can be realized.

The above is just the application of Chinese characters in graphic design is the need to pay attention to the place, you can draw on this idea, the other Chinese elements to make the corresponding analysis of understanding. In addition, it is recommended that you refer to pinterest and behance and other major design sites on some of the outstanding design works, learn their application of Chinese style of creativity and ideas, and then more thinking and practice, so that the creation of a Chinese aesthetic style of graphic works have a more comprehensive help.