Beijing, 3 Feb (Xinhua) -- On 3 February, Xinhua Daily Telegraph published a report entitled "The Appearance Designer of the Winter Olympic Torch: "Flying Behind the 'One Leaf Knows Autumn'."
The exterior design of the Beijing Winter Olympic torch "flying" is inspired by an ordinary leaf.
The tension and beauty of the natural curls of the leaves have conquered the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Design Team from the industrial design industry. The main designer Li Jianye erased all the previous plans, picked up the paintbrush again, imitated the curve of the unpretentious leaf, and drew the final design of the "flying" torch.
Chinese philosophical concepts such as Taoist nature and the unity of heaven and man have thus been reinterpreted to the world through the soft but exuberant posture of the Beijing Winter Olympic torch.
The exterior design of the flappy torch is inspired by a fallen leaf. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
From nothing to nothing, and from something to nothing
Li Jianye, the exterior designer of beijing Winter Olympic torch, currently has the job of designing the appearance of AI interactive technology products. His best areas of design are mainly focused on digital technology products, which are far from the torch, but he is still determined to take on the challenge.
Great Wall Beacon Tower, Songzhu Meishi Han Sanyou, Dunhuang Flying Ribbon, Old Beijing Ice Sugar Gourd... These images, which are reminiscent of China or Beijing, have been considered by Li Jianye, and even made some of these ideas into torch models, but he always feels that he is not powerful enough.
What best represents the spirit of China in its own mind at this moment? Closing his eyes, Li Jianye thought of the movie "My Motherland and Me" that he watched with his parents in 2019. Although the content is not real, the red flag that appears from time to time in the film floats in his mind. "The red flag is blown by the wind and is like our Chinese nation, which is in the stage of great rejuvenation."
"The meaning behind the red flag, I think is very romantic, can express the inner passion and strength of our country, so that most Chinese will have emotional resonance after watching it." 」 Therefore, Li Jianye summarized and refined the image of the "Red Flag Scroll" as the original design idea of his Winter Olympic torch, and ran through it.
There was only a red flag, and the emotion expressed did not seem to be strong enough, and Li Jianye still wanted to give it a winding core. As we all know, Chinese English China has the meaning of ceramics. So Li Jianye drew the red flag shell around the high-temperature resistant industrial ceramic rod into the first draft of his own design of the Beijing Winter Olympic torch.
Flying Torch Exterior Design Team Studio Wall hand-painted torch exterior design sketch. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Li Jianye named the first draft of this version of the torch design "China Core", and used it to impress the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, which openly solicited the design of the torch design to the public, and passed the preliminary examination. But even he did not expect that after several modifications, the torch gradually lost its "core".
The intention to spiral up around something, as a torch, is still too ordinary and too easy to be thought of. Li Jianye asked his torch design to "be unexpected, let people see and feel: Ah, it can still be like this!" He and the team changed it again and again, and in the process of hollowing out their minds, they also "hollowed out" the torch.
Li Jianye and his design team do industrial design, which means that the products they design must be functional. The traditional Taoist philosophy of China emphasizes that "there is profit for the sake of profit, but no use for it." Li Jianye decided to introduce the concept of "emptiness" into his torch design, pulling out the "Chinese core" and letting the Beijing Winter Olympic torch show in the form of a "hollow".
"Thirty spokes have a hub, and when they are not, they are used for cars." When it is not, it is useful for the instrument. Chiseled to think of it as a room, when it is not, it is used for the room. Li Jianye quoted the Tao Te Ching to explain, "Wheels, utensils, and houses can be fully utilized precisely because the center is empty." Our torch is also different because of its hollowness. ”
The designers of the Flying Torch Exterior Design Team peeled bananas to simulate the torch form. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
From "Flower Rolls" to "Flying"
Only the red flag hovers and flutters the torch design, which is dynamic but lacks spirit. Holding up the model carefully, the young designer in the team shook his head: "I can't see that it's a red flag, it's more like a spring." Another designer advised him to be confident: "It's not so unbearable, at least like a double helix structure, just like the one at the intersection of Haidian Huangzhuang Road." Li Jianye listened to the bitter smile, "After tossing and turning for so long, even Zhongguancun has not gone out, how to represent Beijing and China!" ”
The ice and fire on the Winter Olympic torch condensed two of the most conflicting elements in nature, and Li Jianye also hoped that it could be more passionate and dynamic, so he led the design team to seek inspiration from everything around him. They roll spring cakes, peel bananas... Every day, a new version of the plan is changed, and I always feel dissatisfied. Finally, when they communicated with Lin Cunzhen, director of image landscape art in the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, they locked in the inspiration.
When he came to communicate with Li Jianye's team, Lin Cunzhen picked up a leaf that had just landed on the ground, so as to more vividly explain to them the underlying logic in the design aesthetics of the Beijing Winter Olympics: "Tao Fa is natural, nature and man are one". It is this humble leaf that opens up the design team's "Second Pulse of Ren Dou".
Under the guidance of Lin Cunzhen, Li Jianye pinched the leaves for the first time. He was fascinated by the micro-rolled lines of the leaves that had just landed, and Li Jianye realized the natural beauty: "The lines in nature themselves are accelerated and changed, and this curve has a fast and slow, rhythmic, giving people a sense of freedom and vigor, which is different from what we make with industrial design software parameterization." ”
The torch manuscript was repainted imitating the lines of leaves, and clay sculpture experts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts were asked to help shape and deliberate, and the appearance of the "flying" torch was finally born.
Photocopy of the Flying Torch manuscript. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Previously, the torch had not had an official name, and for the sake of secrecy, did not dare to "blatantly" call it the torch, Li Jianye's team privately and affectionately named it "Hana roll". Looking at the torch model that has been tossed for nearly half a year and revised more than 120 versions of the final draft, Li Jianye himself is a bit incredible, "Our 'flower roll', this is out of the pot? ”
From the "flower rolls" out of the pot to the "flying" on the table, in addition to the shape, there are many details on the Beijing Winter Olympic torch that are also unique.
There are 1268 pattern elements on the "Flying" torch, mainly from the auspicious cloud pattern at the bottom to the snowflake pattern above. Considering the tactile needs such as anti-slip, the auspicious cloud pattern at the bottom is raised, while the snowflake pattern on the top is concave. "Xiangyun" is the name of the torch of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and the auspicious cloud pattern is also one of the main visual elements of that Olympic Games. The gradient from auspicious clouds to snowflakes means that Beijing is currently the only "double Olympic city" in the world that has hosted the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
February 4, the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics, is the first spring of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar. Therefore, Li Jianye carefully designed 24 fire holes for the "flying" torch, and let the fire gradually increase from the bottom to the top to reflect the soaring vitality of the more and more prosperous.
The Flying Torch exterior design team discusses the design scheme of the Beijing Winter Olympics Tinder Platform. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
From "Made in China" to "Designed in China"
In addition to the torch, Li Jianye's team also designed the Beijing Winter Olympics Tinder Lamp and Tinder Table. The function of tinder lamp is to facilitate the transportation of tinder between different locations. The appearance design of the tinder lamp draws on the shape of the Western Han Dynasty Changxin Palace lamp, which is known as the "first lamp in China", gives it a sense of movement and vitality with streamer lines, and uses double-layer structure glass to ensure that the fire has enough intake, can be fully burned, is not easy to extinguish, and will not produce black smoke.
"For a long time, when people mentioned Chinese elements, it seemed that they were inseparable from ancient times and history, but that belonged to the China of the past." Today's and even the future of China, will be shown by what kind of design aesthetics, Li Jianye believes that the design experience of the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch has given himself a good exploration. "It's like the difference between the torches of the two Beijing Olympics: the 'Xiangyun' torch of 2008 is like a scroll that converges inwards, as if it is a review of the Chinese nation's civilization of the past 5,000 years; while the 'flying' torch in 2022 is a red flag open to the outside world, meaning to face the future."
Li Jianye (second from right) discusses the design of the Tinder table with the team. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Li Jianye said that in the future, he will also integrate the understanding he has learned from Chinese philosophy through the design of the "flying" torch, as well as the attempt to express the aesthetics of Chinese design, into the future industrial design of electronic products and even daily life products. "I hope that in the near future, our Chinese design will also attract foreign cultural imitations and even lead the world." Let the world not only know about Chinese manufacturing, but also shocked by Chinese design. ”