【Explore the Stars】
Author: Li Shaobo (Professor, Inner Mongolia Normal University); Guo Qin (Lecturer, Inner Mongolia Normal University)
"Red Xing'an Alliance Gift" cultural and creative product design - Shuli
Herders dairy product packaging design
Construction and design of nomadic human settlements
Gobi sheep product packaging design
How can art and design majors better empower a smart society?
In the vast and beautiful Xilin Gol League Zhenglanqi Grassland, there are rich historical and cultural resources such as the ruins of Yuanshangdu, the Golden Lotus Wetland Grassland, and the hometown of Mongolian traditional dairy skills, which need to be packaged and developed urgently. Teachers and students from the International College of Design and Art of Inner Mongolia Normal University came here in batches to enter herdsmen's households, visit scenic spots, explore people's houses, and carry out creative design around local cultural tourism, special cuisine, ethnic costumes, and rural layout. More than 200 design works skillfully combine traditional cultural symbols and fashion elements, bringing new momentum and new opportunities for local specialty products to the market, adding a strong stroke to the revitalization of the pastoral area, and making the grassland more beautiful and fashionable.
These achievements originate from the "classroom revolution" of "creating grasslands intelligently and empowering Inner Mongolia through design". In 2016, the School of International Design and Art of Inner Mongolia Normal University raised funds through various methods such as "alumni crowdfunding, teacher self-financing, and school supplementary fundraising", and on the basis of the original classroom, self-reliant "co-creation space" studio transformation. The college breaks the professional division, cooperates with multiple types of tutors, hires excellent external tutors, and jointly builds a "cultural and creative industry research base". Under the guidance of a team of teachers, students complete part of the practical course in the studio in a quasi-employment manner. Today, the studio created through this "classroom revolution" has become an autonomous region-level "co-working space" and upgraded to a national-level "co-working space" in 2021.
This set of art design practice teaching mode, characterized by experience creation, opportunity creation, and interest shaping, with the goal of "planting the feelings of home and country and stimulating design responsibility", builds a new classroom for educating people with equal emphasis on knowledge expansion, ability cultivation and value shaping. In recent years, the students have designed and completed more than 4,000 creative works such as "Red Xing'an League Gifts", "Construction of Nomadic Human Settlement Environment" and "Grassland Ecological Crisis Design", which not only highlight the distinctive regional characteristics, but also fit the regional development direction and the aesthetic trend of the times. Students participated in more than 1,000 "Design to the Countryside" and "Red Pioneer" series of design exhibitions sponsored by governments at all levels, enterprises and institutions, and won more than 200 awards in public welfare competitions such as "Inner Mongolia Practices Socialist Core Values" and "Anti-epidemic Poster Design", and 76% of the graduates worked in the front line of the design industry in the central and western regions. Students' awareness of taking root in the local area and serving the grass-roots level has been significantly enhanced, and their ability to serve the society has been greatly improved, which has won wide praise and recognition from the society.
Guangming Daily ( 2022-04-03 06 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily