Pictured: Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics sports icon. Photo courtesy of Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee (Xinhua News Agency)
Pictured: Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games mascot "Ice Pier" and "Snow Rongrong" unveiled on Beichen Road. Photo by Hu Qingming (Image China)
Core reading
The emblem "Winter Dream" and "Leap", sports icons derived from the Seal Engraving Art Han Seal, venue enclosures and other landscape designs of the Beijing Winter Olympics skillfully combine ice and snow sports elements with traditional Chinese culture, which is full of Chinese charm. In the view of Lin Cunzhen, director of image landscape art in the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, the landscape design of the Winter Olympics is all-encompassing, hoping to show the world the beauty of China that inherits both tradition and faces the future with the help of design.
In another 10 days, the torch of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will light up the night sky of the ancient capital, and the ice and snow event will welcome guests from all over the world.
The emblem of the Winter Olympic Games "Winter Dream", the emblem of the Winter Paralympic Games "Leap", the Mascot of the Winter Olympic Games "Ice Pier", the Mascot of the Winter Paralympic Games "Snow Rongrong", the torch "Flying", the medal "Tongxin", the sports icon derived from the Chinese seal of the seal engraving art... The ingenious creative design, like a long scroll of Chinese culture, gradually unfolds.
This long scroll was painted by countless people, and Lin Cunzhen, the designer of the emblem and the image landscape art director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, is an important member of it. "From tickets and posters to the layout of street landscapes and stadiums, the landscape design of the Winter Olympics is all-encompassing. We want to show the world a China that inherits both tradition and faces the future. Lin Cunzhen said.
Designed the emblem of the Winter Olympic Games, and revised nearly 10,000 drafts in 8 months
Lin Cunzhen's association with the Olympics began in 2003. The previous year, she received a master's degree in visual graphic design from the University of Leipzig in Germany and taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. At that time, she received a task to design a business card for the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. Three years later, she was transferred to the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. Since then, she has designed the emblem of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, the image landscape application system and the mascot of the 2015 Beijing Athletics World Championships.
In 2013, Beijing solicited bids for the emblem logo of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Lin Cunzhen's logo "Ink Dance Winter Olympics" outlined the Chinese calligraphy "Winter" character with athletes and ice and snow slides, and finally stood out. On July 31, 2015, Beijing successfully bid for the Winter Olympics. Lin Cunzhen secretly pondered: "Can I try to design the emblem of the Winter Olympics and come up with a work that surpasses myself?" ”
When designing the Emblem of the Winter Paralympic Games, Lin Cunzhen was deeply shocked by the video of the competition - the Alpine Skier of the Winter Paralympic Games followed behind the guide, and mastered the trajectory and direction by listening to the sound and password of the guide's sliding. The athlete's courageous spirit of struggle and the courage to challenge himself made Lin Cunzhen deeply feel that only the word "fly" could express this spirit.
On January 23, 2017, Lin Cunzhen received a notice from the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee that among the 4506 works collected, the 801 works she submitted, "Winter Dream" and "Leap", were finally shortlisted.
However, a bigger test is yet to come. The revision team, led by Wang Min, dean of the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, began to revise the emblem plan together with Lin Cunzhen. In 8 months, the team revised nearly 10,000 drafts, and the emblem graphic files of more than 200 KB in size accumulated into a total of 15GB. Lin Cunzhen said: "To do things, we must strive to do the best. ”
On the evening of December 15, 2017, the emblem was unveiled in a stunning way. Inspired by the Chinese character calligraphy "Winter", the emblem of the Winter Olympics, the upper half of the figure shows the shape of skaters, and the lower half shows the heroic posture of skiers, integrating oriental cultural heritage with modern style. The Winter Paralympic emblem "Leap" shows the dynamics and intensity of the Chinese character "fly", subtly changing into an athlete who glides forward and rushes to victory.
It integrates traditional Chinese aesthetics with the characteristics of ice and snow sports
Chinese characters, seal engraving, calligraphy, paper cutting, kites, Peking Opera faces... Lin Cunzhen's works are full of Chinese elements.
Lin Cunzhen recalled that when she studied design abroad, her mentors and friends often asked her questions about Chinese culture. During that time, she read a lot of books, and the more she explored, the more she felt the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture. When doing the graduation project, Lin Cunzhen's work theme is "Chinese numbers", she specially brought a batch of traditional wooden abacus from Beijing, through the design to show "shape and number" and Chinese understanding of numbers. Lin Cunzhen sighed: "Immersed in excellent traditional culture for a long time, constantly understanding, in order to create works with connotations." ”
The traditional Chinese idea of "Taoism and Nature, Unity of Heaven and Man" is the design inspiration for many elements of the Beijing Winter Olympics. During the design period, Lin Cunzhen and his team members took Yanqing by car to Zhangjiakou and carefully pondered the mountainous landforms along the way; they stood in the alpine ski departure area and looked out, feeling the momentum of Xiaohaituo Mountain... These natural inspirations are vividly reflected in the design of the Winter Olympic emblem, mascot and stadium enclosure.
"Finding the answer from nature", in the design of the torch "flying", Lin Cunzhen experience is particularly profound. At first, the team tried many solutions using industrial design techniques, but they never felt vivid enough.
Until one day, Lin Cunzhen inadvertently saw a phalaenopsis leaf slowly falling on the desk, the curled leaf surface flexible and light, showing the curved tension and beauty created by nature. Inspired by this leaf, the team adjusted more than 120 versions of the model, constantly polishing the details, and finally made the torch "alive". The final torch "flying", the smooth lines are full of dynamics, very Chinese charm, and have been highly affirmed by the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee.
Whether it is the main color composed of Xiaguang red, Yingchun yellow, Tianji blue, Great Wall gray, Ruixue white, or the intercolor composed of azure blue, plum red, bamboo green, ice blue, and ji persimmon, as well as auxiliary colors such as ink, gold, and silver... The color design of the Beijing Winter Olympics is inspired by traditional Chinese mineral pigment colors, combined with an understanding of traditional Chinese culture such as the four hours of nature and the twenty-four solar terms.
Use design to show the image of China to the world
On October 18, 2021, at the scene of the tinder collection ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the first torchbearer and Greek alpine skier Jannis Antoneu received the burning torch. At this time, the cuffs of his costume and the red line that reached the soles of his feet on the side of his body were connected with the "flying" torch that fluttered in the sky like a colored ribbon into a complete red line.
"This design connects heaven, earth and people, forming a complete landscape system." Lin Cunzhen introduced that the red ribbon is the core of the entire torch relay vision, and it is also in line with the emblem graphics. Torches, torchbearer uniforms, tinder lights and tinder pots, all designed under this red line.
The design of the sports icon of the Beijing Winter Olympics uses the structure and form of early cultural symbols and oracle bones, and uses Chinese printing as a form of expression. The icon skillfully combines ice and snow sports elements with traditional Chinese culture, and is affectionately known as the "Little Red Man" of the Winter Olympics (see picture). This is also the first dynamic sports icon in the history of the Winter Olympics: in the form of a GIF, in the form of a 2-3 second video animation, the icon is converted from a two-dimensional seal carving to a three-dimensional ice and snow movement, and the effect of "burning" is presented with dynamic music. "I hope that through design, the traditional seal will become fashionable and vibrant, in line with the aesthetics of young people." Lin Cunzhen said that in the future, interactive products will be designed.
The innovation was also reflected in the design of the enclosures of the 12 competition venues. Lin Cunzhen and the team combined "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" with different Winter Olympic projects, and conveyed their thinking on Chinese culture by integrating Chinese landscape scrolls into the landscape of the venue.
There is an old black-and-white photograph in the history museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is a teaching scene from the sculpture department in 1958, and the banner hanging above the classroom reads "The world is watching us." "We shoulder the mission of showing China's image to the world", recalling this photo, Lin Cunzhen is full of passion: "I am fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the design of the Olympic Games and leave a mark on China's history." ”
People's Daily (2022-01-25 12th edition)