• Repetition

Repetition is a principle often used in poster design, as it emphasizes the subject that needs to be highlighted and also creates a kind of order. American designers also use a lot of repetition in their graphic designs, and they make some changes accompanied by simple repetition. For example, Michael C. Gross changes the color of the shapes, Klára Tamás changes the direction of one of the shapes, and Stephen Frykholm designs similar shapes of different sizes. All of these will strengthen the reader’s impression and bring visual impact.

Michael C. Gross, Department of Publications and Urban Design, Organizing Committee of the XIX Olympiad
International Festival of the Arts, Swingle Singers, Mexico City Cultural Olympics
1968

Klára Tamás
Le Mur (The Wall) (Film poster for the film directed by Constantin Vaeni, cinematographer Josef Demian)
1974–1976

Stephen Frykholm
Herman Miller Summer Picnic August 21, 1970
1970

• The intersection of graphics and text

In general, properly overlapping text with graphics can bring a three-dimensional feeling and make the reader feel a depth to the poster. Obscuring the text in this way doesn’t affect the reading, but draws the reader in to spend more time figuring out what the poster is communicating. It is also an interesting way to combine text and graphics, such as in America’s Answer! Production, where the letter O is also a nut.

Paula Scher
The Public Theater, 95-96 Season
1995

Orient Cycles
Edward Penfield, 1895-1896

America’s Answer! Production
Jean Carlu
1942

I overlapped the flower installation with the text, trying to create the feeling of the text being inside the flowers. And repeat the flowers and change the color and size. The repetition is used to emphasize the theme of the installation.

• Chaotic typography

In this type of poster design, textual information is the dominant factor. There are not many graphics or icons. And unlike ordered typography, the textual information isn’t arranged in order of importance. This out-of-the-box approach also gets the reader’s attention and it can be impressive and engaging.

Typographic Chaos emphasizes the importance of experimentation, and finding new approaches beyond various typographic systems, to solve design problems. It pushes the limits of communication by examining how an audience perceives and reacts to the subject matter. It utilizes three-dimensional space in order to achieve more variations of design. As a result, Typographic Chaos will not only promote creativity but will also help to form a better visual communication with an audience. (Vlad Golosiy)

Edward Fella
Review Committe
1989

Elaine Lustig Cohen
Catalog for Ex Libris
1990s

I put the name of my project, the name of the creator, the date of the exhibition and other textual information all in this poster, challening the rules of typography.

Source:

“Smithsonian American Art Museum.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2022, americanart.si.edu/.

“MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, 2022, www.moma.org/.

Vlad Golosiy. “Typographic Chaos.” Artsy, 26 Feb. 2014, www.artsy.net/article/vlad-golosiy-typographic-chaos.

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• There are many different styles of Chinese painting, but they can be broadly divided into two types. One is “gongbi”, a realist Chinese painting technique involving highly detailed brushstrokes that originated around 2000 years ago during the Han Dynasty. Usually painted with ink and color on silk, with very thin lines and many details.  “Compared to Western art, Chinese painting is traditionally more stylized, more abstract and less realistic than Western types. It also emphasizes the importance of white space. In simple terms, there are two types of “guo hua”: the first, known as “Gong-bi” or meticulous-style, is also described as court-style painting; the second, known as “Shui-mo” or “xie yi” or freehand-style, is also called ink and brush painting, or “literati painting”, and was practiced by amateur scholar artists.” (“Chinese Painting: Characteristics, Types, History”)

Orchids, Ma Lin, Date: second quarter of the 13th century, Medium: Album leaf; ink and color on silk

Tang dancing girl in blue dress,
Pang Xunqin, 1944

Four posters of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Zhang Chun, 2016

I placed the picture of the model with the flower in the center of the poster, leaving a lot of white space around it. I used a background with texture to express the feeling of silk. In the negative space, I put gongbi-style Chinese elements, such as cranes, and used Chinese calligraphy fonts.

• The other is “xieyi”, where Xie means to write and Yi the meaning. A famous master of Chinese painting, Zhang Daqian, said that Xieyi indicated the fact of drawing the spirit of the beings. Full of hazy and romantic. (“Chinese Painting Xieyi”)

SANS TITRE Untitled, Zhao wuji, 1990

Autumn Mountains in Twilight
1967
Zhang Daqian

The background of this poster is the shadow of the flower installation. Due to the special material of organza, the installation will produce a colored shadow under the light. Since I used soft light and the installation had some distance from the background set when I shot it, the shadow is hazy. There is no clear outline. This blurring is like Xieyi, there is not much detail but conveys the feeling.

Reference：

“Chinese Painting: Characteristics, Types, History.” Visual-Arts-Cork.com, 2022, www.visual-arts-cork.com/east-asian-art/chinese-painting.htm.

“Chinese Painting Xieyi.” Chine-Culture.com, 2022, www.chine-culture.com/en/chinese-painting/chinese-painting-xieyi.php.

“Artsy — Discover, Buy, and Sell Fine Art.” Artsy, 2017, www.artsy.net/.

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The floral wire is easily shaped, you are welcome to touch it and make the petals into the shape you like. 

Only for Spring is an art installation, which is mainly composed of organza and floral wire. The fleeting beauty is eternally preserved， because of the special texture of organza, “petals” will change color with the change of light.

Feel free to take a photo with this flower installation, and I would be very happy if you could post the photo to Instagram and @amberlee_0107.

Only for Spring

work statement:

Only for Spring is a project of an art installation and 6 different styles of posters. I want to preserve some fleeting beauty in another way.

The installation is mainly composed of organza and floral wire. The blossoming flower’s look is eternally preserved.  The floral wire is easily shaped, which also makes this installation an interactive one. Because of the special texture of organza, “petals” will change color with the change of light, making it feel like we are in a secret garden.

Six posters show the different styles that have developed in different cultures. In addition to the traditional classification of styles, I think the aesthetic style has developed some special features in some countries under the influence of different backgrounds.

Installation：

poster：

Chinese and Kanji in Japanese:

Japanese includes katakana, hiragana and kanji.

“kanji, (Japanese: “Chinese character”) in the Japanese writing system, ideograms (or characters) adapted from Chinese characters. Kanji constitute one of the two systems used to write the Japanese language, the other being the two indigenous kana syllabaries (hiragana and katakana).

Ancient Japan had no writing system for its spoken language until kanji were imported from China in about the 8th century CE. With the development of the kana syllabaries, kanji came to be employed for writing nouns, verb roots, adjectives, and other important words. Nouns often consist of compound characters: two or more kanji written together. The Japanese affixes for verb tenses, prepositions, and other grammatical markers, which do not exist in Chinese, were then indicated by kana (typically hiragana). The pronunciation of kanji symbols may be indicated as well by hiragana script.” (“Kanji | Definition, Rules, & Facts | Britannica”)

The Use of Kanji in Poster Design:

Japanese designers will use kanji as the main element in posters, more like turning kanji into a symbol or graphic than conveying information.

Since kanji are composed of many strokes, some Japanese designers change a few strokes and combine them with other graphic elements. Or break up the characters and use only part of them. Usually, the stroke is associated with the use of kanji.

“Brush strokes are yet another commonly recurring motif seen in Japanese design. This motif is largely in part tied to the traditional practises of Japanese calligraphy, also known as an art form called ‘Shodou’.

In Shodou art, the brush strokes are often messier, streaky, and cruder, as the art form dictates that no corrections to each stroke should be made, instead each line should simply flow into the next.” (“Graphic Design from around the World: Japanese Design.”)

84 Chikyu Poetry Festival

Fumihiko Enokido, 1984

Ryumin/ New Typeface Promotion

Ikko Tanaka, 1986

Typography

Yukihisa Takakita, 1979

I use the kanji of the flower as the background and use one font that is different from all other text messages. The color is a light blue so that it won’t interfere with the reading of other information. The size of the flower’s kanji is large enough to grab the reader’s attention easily. It echoes with the photo of the flower in the left corner of the poster.

Gradients and Geometric Shapes:

“Another trend you might observe in Japanese graphic design is a large use of gradients. Subtle colours fading and bleeding into one another is a very commonly used graphic element, often used for backgrounds to bring life and color to designs.” (“Graphic Design from around the World: Japanese Design.”)

Represented by Koichi Sato stands for a group of Japanese artists who like to use gradients in the background. Their poetic way of designing has given the reader a sense of stillness. Geometric shapes are also an important element for Japanese designers, a big reason is that the circle, the most classic geometric shape, is on the Japanese flag.

Color in Japan

Yusaku Kamekura, 1964

The Fall of Sujaku Family

Koichi Sato, 1987

Totto Noren Kai

Koichi Sato, 1989

Rikyu

Koichi Sato, 1988

Deep and Poetic

Koichi Sato

I used AI and PS to draw the flowers with clear edges. Just like my installation, you can see the different layers through the semi-transparent petals.

Reference and Sources:

“Kanji | Definition, Rules, & Facts | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2022, www.britannica.com/topic/kanji.

Kirei-Posters from Japan, 1978-1993/Japanese English (English, Japanese and Japanese Edition) Hardcover – March 1, 1994, by Catherine Burer

Stribley, Mary. “Graphic Design from around the World: Japanese Design.” Learn, Canva, 16 Aug. 2021, www.canva.com/learn/japanese-design/.

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The Similarities Between Poster Designers from the Same Cultural Background

The poster originated in the early 19th century and was one of the earliest forms of advertising. The combination of text and pictures was an artful way to make a commercial in the transmission of an advertising message. “Nineteenth-century poster artists, many trained as painters, applied their skills to graphic designs which advertised products such as champagne, beer and cigarette papers, or promoted bars and nightclubs, magazines, newspapers, steamship lines, railroads, sporting events or tourism. Posters were also created for promoting cultural events such as exhibitions, concerts, theatrical productions and, then in the twentieth century, film showings. Throughout history, posters have also been used to express political positions, proselytize, propagandize or convey information that has social importance.” (“Reflecting the Soul of a Nation: Polish Poster Art – Illustration History”) The poster began to develop as a medium for visual communication, it’s a tool and also an art form.

Examples of posters with different functions：

British advertisement for Coca-Cola,1954

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891, A party poster, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA.

I Want YOU for US Army

J.M. Flagg, 1917, recruit soldiers to fight in World War I and World War II.

We Can Do It!

J. Howard Miller, 1943, an American wartime propaganda poster designed to boost workers’ morale, also known as a symbol of feminism and political empowerment.

“They influenced the development of typography because they were meant to be read from a distance and required larger type to be produced. The poster quickly spread around the world and became a staple of the graphic design trade. ” (“Posters : Design Is History.”) The poster has become an important part of graphic design.

Different Styles Between Different countries:

“Despite cross-pollination, distinctive national styles also became apparent – Dutch posters were marked by restraint and orderliness; Italian posters by their drama and grand scale; German posters for their directness and medieval influence.” (“A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POSTER”)

Different historical backgrounds, different languages used, and even different religions have led to distinct design styles between countries. Designers from the same country appear to share some similarities in their own visual style. Without following any unified style or manifesto, they cannot be categorized as their own artistic genre, but rather as a specific phenomenon influenced by various different schools such as Minimalism, Realism and Dadaism. （“THE INSANE HISTORY OF POLISH MOVIE POSTERS”）This is a development based on a long history, deeply rooted in the country’s past.

Some film companies have designed specific film posters for different countries’ preferences that have a strong commercial appeal to the local people.

The poster of “Venom.”

The poster of “Venom.”

The poster of “Venom.”

“For instance, Fox’s “Venom” is set for a release on November 9. The newly released poster, features the titular superhero depicted in the style of a Chinese ink painting.

The poster of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Four posters of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

“When the film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” arrived in China two years ago, each of the beasts got their own portrait, painted in the style of the illustrations found in ancient Chinese mythical books.

Reference:

“Reflecting the Soul of a Nation: Polish Poster Art – Illustration History.” Illustrationhistory.org, 2015, www.illustrationhistory.org/essays/reflecting-the-soul-of-a-nation-polish-poster-art.

Flask, Dominic. “Posters : Design Is History.” Designishistory.com, 2022, www.designishistory.com/1850/posters/.

“50 Posters That Rocked Our World.” Xerox.co.uk, 2012, www.xerox.co.uk/en-gb/digital-printing/insights/custom-poster-prints.

Internationalposter.com, 2022, www.internationalposter.com/a-brief-history-of-the-poster/.

THE. “Sabukaru.” Sabukaru, 28 Mar. 2021, sabukaru.online/articles/the-insane-history-of-polish-movie-posters.

Meno, Andrea. “8 Movie Posters That Were Way Better in Other Countries.” Cracked.com, Cracked.com, 15 Jan. 2019, www.cracked.com/article_26142_8-movie-posters-from-other-countries-that-are-simply-awesome.html.

“Hollywood Films Get Localized Posters for China.” Cgtn.com, 2018, news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414e78497a4d30457a6333566d54/index.html.

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This large art installation is mainly composed of organza and floral stem wire. I will combine multiple large organza flowers to make a scene. Due to the luminous pigments on the “petals”, the whole installation will have different visual effect when the lights are turned on and off.

The production process：

1. First, cut out the organza according to the shape of the petals
2. Roast the edges of the organza fabric with fire and seal the edges
3. Use hot-melt adhesive to fix the three wires on the “petals”
4. Putting the “petals” together
5. Add neon nights glow in the dark paint, which allows the installation to show a different look when the lights are off and on

Reference photos：

What You See is Not ALL

I’m going to show the same theme/ subject in a few distinctly different styles, explore the most representative elements and then use it.

The project will focus on the different styles that have developed in different cultures. Aesthetic styles
can be expressed in many ways: architecture, clothing, painting, photography. The reasons for the
different styles may lie in the history of the culture, the local customs that are unique to it. And so on.
As an international student from China, I realized while studying in the U.S. that there are aesthetic
trends among students from different cultural backgrounds. I have basic speaking and reading
knowledge of Japanese, so I also have a certain level of understanding of Japanese culture. Based on an
understanding of these three cultures, I want to complete a series of advertising photography. I will
present the same product with different advertising styles from different countries. The purpose is to
study the aesthetic styles developed in different cultures.
I propose to complete a semester-long independent study project in digital art, with creative outcomes.
There will be 9 posters for an exhibition. The size will be 13*19 inches.
I will spend the first three weeks completing the product design, and then every three weeks to complete
the research for one country as well as the shooting. The countries I plan to research include the US,
China, Japan, etc. The tools that will be used are PS, AI, Procreate. Combining photography and design
together.

For different audiences, the ad design is likely to change to a design that better matches the audience’s
aesthetics. “Seasonal marketing is huge in Japan, with spring and cherry blossoms being one of the most
widely leveraged themes in product promotion and marketing.”(“5 Timeless Japanese Advertising Style
Tips for the Uninitiated – Humble Bunny”)

Reference Poster：

I placed different shaped water glasses with different amounts of water in front of the items. The objects look distorted by the reflection of the glass. Through the work with glass, I can create something meaningful and complex with the simplest of things. It also made me view and think about these items that I am most familiar with around me in a different way.

Reference photographer Suzanne Saroff

“Glasses of water are remarkable things: they can quench thirst, make music and, in the case of Suzanne Saroff, beautifully distort fruits and flowers to create unexpected and surrealistic images.”(Marjolijn Oostermeijer)