Cao Xue. Guangzhou City Propaganda Photo
"A film has just been released, and today it will be interviewed and filmed by two column groups... Can I share footage between groups? Cao Xue, chief designer of the beijing winter Olympic mascot ice pier, recently issued such an emotion in his circle of friends.
Busy is Cao Xue's main state recently, and he has to be interviewed by multiple media every day. In September 2019, the beijing Winter Olympics mascot ice pier was unveiled – a panda with an ice crystal shell. Cao Xue's life has also changed dramatically, "maybe even if my subjective consciousness doesn't think about the ice pier, there is no way."
In fact, in the past year or so, Cao Xue and his creative team have not been idle, and after the release of the main image of the ice pier, they have also continued to create dynamic images and various sports gestures around the ice pier. At present, the official website of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee has replaced the dynamic icon of the original project introduction with the sports image of the ice pier.
About the Beijing Winter Olympics
Designing ice piers is a lesson
After the ice pier was officially selected as the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts quickly established the Winter Olympic Cultural and Visual Center, and now almost all the content created around the ice pier is produced in this center. The ice pier not only interprets the 15 major events of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, but also wears a five-color shell of the same color as the five rings of the Olympic Games.
After the release of the main image of the ice pier, Cao Xue began to lead the team to continue to design its various sports postures. Cao Xue said: "Half of the 14-person team we originally designed the ice piers graduated from graduate school, but we felt that we could not always rely on the original team to create, so we added some fresh blood." We also opened our doors to sister colleges and universities, and took out our prize money as a development fund, so that more people in the society can participate in the creation of the ice pier. ”
For Cao Xue and his team, the creation of the ice pier is not only a contribution to the image of the country, but also a homework. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both faculty and graduate students." Cao Xue said, "The design of the Winter Olympic mascot must first pay attention to the development of society and the country, from theoretical research to experimental practice, it is necessary to have a specific form to complete it." I think this creation is actually a different class for me as a teacher. Cao Xue hopes to summarize these experiences and use them in future design education.
In less than a month, the Beijing Winter Olympics will open. It is reported that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics is different from the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the number and scale of actors will be compressed. And Cao Xue is also most concerned about the opening ceremony, especially in the case of scale compression, what kind of presentation will it be?
"Design does just that. I often say that the word 'design' in our Chinese characters is very subtle, it is next to the words, not the technique next to the handle. So what does 'speech' mean? Words represent opinions and expressions. Therefore, I hope that through this Winter Olympics, including its opening and closing ceremonies, I will use four or two thousand pounds of a means to present a wonderful Winter Olympic event with our design, and I am full of expectations. Cao Xue said, "The design should be clever, the design should be clever, and it must be ingenious." After ingenious design, I believe that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics must be unforgettable. ”
For the presentation of the ice pier at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, Cao Xue also has his own expectations. In fact, the current presentation of the ice pier is a little far from cao Xue's imagination - at the time of design, the ice crystal shell of the ice pier is full of science and technology, and the brilliance flows, but in fact, the shell of the ice pier that people get their hands on cannot achieve such an effect for the time being. "I expect the creators of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics to use our original ideas to show us such an ice panda full of wisdom and futurism."
About the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater
People-to-people exchanges bring living water from the source
In 2025, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will usher in another sports event, that is, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area National Games. As the designer of the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, will Cao Xue participate in the mascot design of the sports event held at his "home"? "I'm not good at sports, but when something like this comes, I want to rush forward." Cao Xue believes that "post-60s" like him are born with a sense of mission and responsibility.
Cao Xue is a native of Nanjing, but has lived in Guangzhou for 22 years, he is familiar with the life of Guangzhou, understands the culture of Guangzhou, has also designed the city symbol of Guangzhou, and is a standard new Guangzhounese. He said that the exchanges between peers in the Greater Bay Area are frequent, which is an irreplaceable advantage of the Greater Bay Area.
"For example, the word 'Hong Kong' in Hong Kong, Hong Kong is a port, a platform for communication, I like the word 'Hong Kong'. Each city in the Greater Bay Area is not an island, but can become a 'port', as long as it is a port, there will be ships coming and going, and as long as there is a port, there will be fresh wind blowing in." I hope that the cities in the Greater Bay Area can maintain exchanges, and they need to communicate and communicate to become a pool of living water, so that the advantages of activating ideas can be transformed into our designs. Cao Xue said.
About the design
Start with your side, start by focusing on life
On August 8, 2018, the mascots of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were collected from all over the world, and a total of 5,816 design proposals were received for the collection activities. From January 7 to 8, 2019, more than ten domestic and foreign experts were invited to participate in the preliminary evaluation and re-evaluation of mascot design schemes, and finally selected 10 selected design schemes. It is worth mentioning that 3 of these 10 programs come from the team led by Cao Xue. Cao Xue still remembers the comment of an expert in Beijing at that time, "It seems that Guangdong, as the forefront of reform and opening up, is worthy of its name!" ”
"If a design wins the bid and there is contingency in it, then 30% of the top 10 companies are still accidental?" When analyzing the reasons, Cao Xue said that Guangdong design contains culture and artistry, and the most important thing is the third point - commerciality.
"Why should there be mascots in the Olympic Games, one is to communicate with people all over the world as goodwill ambassadors and spread culture. Another important purpose that we should not deny is commerciality, and the money earned from the sale of peripheral products can be used to continue to support the development of sports, so the mascot has an important function, that is, its commerciality. Cao Xue said.
As the forefront of reform and opening up, Guangdong is more sensitive to commerciality, and the ice shell of the ice pier not only has avant-garde and scientific and technological considerations, but also has commercial considerations, "using artistic means to empower commercial and economic development." ”
In Cao Xue's view, design is systematic thinking, although his profession is called graphic design, but thinking is not flat, but three-dimensional, multi-dimensional. "For example, even if it is designing a product packaging, it also requires multi-dimensional thinking, from the bottle type to the volume, the look and feel of being placed on the shelf, including the feeling that people hold it, which is what designers need to consider."
Design is everywhere in daily life, it enhances the degree of civilization of the city, and the really good design should be silent. For example, when people are waiting for a bus at the platform, how can they distinguish which one they want to take from a distance? The answer is to solve this problem by combining color, graphics, and text.
Cao Xue not only designs the mascot, but also does such behind-the-scenes work. "I think the design of the Greater Bay Area should first start from the side, start from paying attention to our lives, and find a life node, which will be a different bay area, a different Guangdong, a different Guangzhou."
Nanfang Daily reporter Wang Fang and Zhang Siyi
Planner: Huang Can, Li He
Coordinator: Qiu Jiangjian