Lin Cunzhen: Professor and Vice Dean of the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Artistic Director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee
From 2003 to 2022, Lin Cunzhen and the Olympic Games were inextricably linked. As the designer of the Logo of the Beijing Winter Olympic Bid, the Emblem of the Winter Olympic Games, and the Emblem of the Winter Paralympic Games, she drew inspiration from traditional culture and designed a most recognizable face for the Beijing Winter Olympics with a modern design language.
As a participant in the landscape work of the 2008 Olympic Games and the artistic director of the 2022 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, she controls the Olympic landscape with the design concept of international standards, so that the Beijing Winter Olympics can show the infinite beauty of charm.
On December 15, 2017, the emblems of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games "Winter Dream" and the Winter Paralympic Emblem "Leap" were released, both of which were from the same designer , Lin Cunzhen. IOC Bach said: "The unveiling of the emblem of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games is a wonderful milestone in the Olympic journey for China and even the entire Olympic family; people all over the world will communicate with each other with the image of the emblem of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games; the emblem represents the vision of the Beijing Winter Olympics, showing the beauty of China to the world, and integrating modern and traditional in a unique way; the emblem will also bring the fun of winter sports to the young generation in China and even the world." In the words of Lin Cunzhen: "When we tried many design elements, listed all the key words, and finally confirmed that it is most suitable to present it in the form of calligraphy, which represents the highest artistic expression of the nation, in the form of Chinese characters that have been continuous for three thousand years." In her view, design and pure artistic creation are not the same, design not only relies on the flash of inspiration, but more importantly, to do a full study of the designed project, in the research to find the direction of positioning. The process by which Lin Cunzhen designed the logo of the Winter Olympics "Ink Dance Winter Olympics" is the best example. "The history of the modern Olympic Games for more than a hundred years, so many countries around the world have devoted their national efforts to bid, and all people's eyes are focused on this, then the bid is an opportunity to show the national image to the world, which is the important significance of Olympic design." Lin Cunzhen and her team listed all the key words they could think of, and after repeated discussions, they finally focused on several directions - Chinese characters + calligraphy; representative Beijing historical buildings, such as the Great Wall or the Temple of Heaven; ice and snow elements that represent winter; and finally determined the direction of Chinese characters + calligraphy in these ideas. "Since the oracle bone, we have more than three thousand years of written history, which has continued. Moreover, calligraphy, which is written in the language of the nation as the highest form of artistic expression of the nation, is also unique, and when the two are joined together, they are the cultural symbols that can best represent China. "In addition, from the perspective of modern design language, Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, which have images in themselves, and it has the basis and possibilities for presenting sports." The "Winter Olympics of Ink Dance" combines the "winter" of calligraphy form with the form of skating and skiing, and integrates the following two points with the number "2" at the beginning of "2022", forming a vivid and lively form of unity of heaven and man. "Dong initially wrote very much like a word, and after several discussions, the proportion of the movement element was increased, so that Chinese to read the word, foreigners to see the painting, and no matter who it was, it could understand it without obstacles."
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From the logo of the Winter Olympics to the emblem of the Winter Olympics, the smooth upgrading of the word "winter" is a natural thing in the eyes of the public, and in Lin Cunzhen's view, this is another challenge. "When the Emblem of the Winter Olympics was announced, someone asked me if I had an advantage in designing the logo of the bid and designing the emblem? I say it's not an advantage, it's a disadvantage. You have to zero out all your previous efforts and try again, which is completely different from others starting with freshness, and it is really not easy to think about it now. On July 31, 2016, when the Olympic Organizing Committee solicited the emblem from the world, Lin Cunzhen's initial idea was to make a completely different perspective, but in the process of thinking, she found that calligraphy expression is still the best choice. When the question returns to the original point, the biggest challenge for designers is "If I use the word winter again, what kind of changes can I make?" "The bid for the Winter Olympics is to show the judges that China has the strength and confidence to hold the Winter Olympics, that is, to express and promise, but it is more biased towards humanities, so this standard is more focused on cultural concepts." When it is held, it is necessary to highlight that it is a sports event, and the core is sports, so it is necessary to increase the expression of this aspect more. So there was the "Winter Dream." The word "winter" is given a rich sports connotation, the first half of the three strokes simulate the posture of speed skaters, the lower half is based on skiing, and the dancing lines in the middle represent the undulating mountain track. As a designer himself, Lin Cunzhen's interpretation is more abundant. "The middle part actually integrates the snowmobile project, and the overall word looks like it fits with the figure of the figure skater, so it is a fusion of a lot of sports significance." If the Winter Olympic emblem is a "competition" with one word, then the Winter Paralympic emblem is another twist. After many revisions, it finally returned to the original "leap" plan. "Two emblems, eight strokes each, add up to sixteen strokes, and have been revised for more than ten months." Today, in addition to being a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the vice dean of the School of Design, and the designer of the emblem of the Winter Olympic Games, Lin Cunzhen also serves as the artistic director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, responsible for the design and management of the brand, image and event landscape of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
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This fate with the Olympics can be traced back to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In 2006, Lin Cunzhen was seconded to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee as the deputy director of the Image Landscape Division of the Ministry of Cultural Activities, responsible for the design and management of the Olympic image landscape. "The Olympic landscape has a special term internationally: Look of the Games, which can be understood as — what you see throughout the competition is within this visual system."
The work of the Beijing Olympic Games has benefited Lin Cunzhen a lot, but also left a little regret, the emblem, Fuwa, Xiangyun, which we are familiar with, the elements of the Beijing Olympic Games are actually independent. In order to make up for this regret, the landscape system of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has built a complete set of brand visual frameworks with the emblem as the core basic element. "So this time, starting with the emblem, we will build a system, which is equivalent to putting the whole framework in place first." The design system of the Beijing Winter Olympics is particularly rich, and it has been continuously released since 2018. Mascots, torches, booths, uniforms... The frame is complete and professionally controlled, making these designs look both distinctive and consistently continuous. The birth of the Winter Olympic mascot "Ice Pier" depends on such a framework and control, if this cute panda is plucked from a string of sugar gourds, can you believe it? The design process starts with brainstorming all the elements, all the animals are listed, and the result is still pandas. "This is a very big difficulty, after the release of many people are saying, how is it a panda, in fact, when we do it, we tried countless schemes such as elk, zodiac tiger, rabbit, etc., but what is the animal that can represent China? There will be no second answer to this question. "The rock sugar gourd is a very bright first draft, it adds different images to the ice sugar shell, but there are also obvious flaws - how many mascots are these?" This question led to the entire plan being almost rejected. Finally, I try to suggest that I take only one of them to try it, is it okay? As a result, the panda was "packed" into the ice sugar shell. But new questions ensued – what is the logic of pandas in their shells? "We introduced the elements of the ice ribbon venue, and suddenly turned the panda into an image with an ice and snow sports helmet and a decorative ribbon, and explored the future of science and technology!" In fact, the winter Paralympic mascot 'Snow Rongrong' was also 'saved' back. At that time, the requirement was that although the connotations carried by the two mascots had different emphases, they must be paired with two animals, so the 'snow rongrong' with the lantern as an element was rejected several times, but I would still take it to the meeting next time, because I confirmed that this is a good direction, it can carry the humanistic feelings we want. "In Lin Cunzhen's view, this lantern scheme that stands out from the collection of works is in line with the temperament of the Winter Paralympic Emblem, 'leaping' is a spirit that transcends the self, and the characteristics of the lantern shine from the inside out." The core concept of the Paralympic Games is to use the fighting spirit of these paralympic athletes to encourage everyone to pursue their dreams. ”
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As the artistic director of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, but also as a designer, Lin Cunzhen's focus is not only on the design itself, what she has always wanted to do is to promote the development of the industry through design, in order to make a "ice pier" shell, she went to meet various material experts and run manufacturers. "In 2008, there were fuwas sold everywhere on the overpass, but this Winter Olympics, you can't see any cottages outside, because the technical content is high."
Design to drive the development of related industries, has always been Lin Cunzhen's "wild hope", although she is a design professional, but her work experience is far more than single-line design. After graduating from the Design Department of Beijing Institute of Printing, she entered the State Press and Publication Administration. The following year, with the encouragement of her employer, she and her colleagues co-founded Art and Design, a design magazine. While the magazine was thriving, she unexpectedly chose to study in Germany. In 2002, he obtained a master's degree in graphic design from the Institute of Visual Arts in Leipzig, Germany, and after returning to China, he taught at the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and at the same time performed well in the design projects of many major competitions. Remember the mascot of the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, "Yan'er"? The integration of the popular little swallow, the old Beijing traditional sand swallow kite and the Peking Opera face, not only has a strong Beijing cultural characteristics, but also has a lively and flexible sports temperament, this design is also from Lin Cunzhen's hand. Design-oriented, but not limited to design. In 2009, Lin Cunzhen participated in the organization and preparation of the Beijing World Design Conference, which in turn gave birth to the Beijing International Design Week, and in the years since, she has maintained a high degree of enthusiasm for this platform for promoting the integration and development of creative design and related industries. A few years ago, she curated a theme exhibition for Design Week called "Adaptation to Nature", which corresponds to the works of contemporary Chinese designers from keywords selected from traditional cultural classics such as "Kao Gong Ji". "The idea at that time was that the design could return to Chinese traditions, draw on the power of culture, and endorse today's Chinese design, so that it can establish a clearer image in the world." Thinking and acting are one, and Lin Cunzhen's design concepts have always been clearly reflected in her personal creations. This is true from "Swallow" to "Winter Dream", including the rebirth of her personal design brand REBORN. "The most recent series is to combine the damaged ancient porcelain pieces in the Song kiln with lacquer and 3D printing to make plates, using the traditional lacquer process, turning these pieces of history into utensils that we can use in our daily lives today, I put these works on sale in the online shop of the Guanfu Museum, I thought it would be very small, but I didn't expect it to be quite popular." The recent thing that made Lin Cunzhen feel the charm of design was related to the Olympic Games. "An Olympic T-shirt with a national flag, I put it on to meet my friends, they all want to buy the same model, so I went to the Olympic Organizing Committee's licensed shop to help them buy it, and found a long queue at the door, although I didn't want to queue, but I was very happy, because it proved the charm of the design!" 」
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Planning: Wen Ji Executive: Ding Ding, Liu Xueshi, Wen Ji Photography: Zhang Hongkai Author: Kitchen Huajun Styling: Qin Lei Makeup Hair: Weiya Editorial Assistant / Li Xinyu WeChat Typesetting: Miffy, Yuer