For the well-known Zhongshan designer Hong Wei, 2020 is a heavy year: his personal book "Contemplation - The Philosophy of Inhabitation" (designed by Pan Yanrong) won the 2020 "World's Most Beautiful Book" Bronze Award, while "Handwriting" designed and written by him won the Bronze Cube Award of The Art Directors Club, an art director's club in New York, which millions of designers dream of.
These are two books with very different styles, the former is like everyone's boudoir, dignified and elegant, the latter is like a naughty teenager, casual and humorous, seemingly out of reach, but the creative inspiration comes from Hong Wei's unique insight into the nature of Chinese art.
△ "Contemplation - The Philosophy of Inhabitation" published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House is Hong Wei's monograph on the future of Chinese furniture design. The pictures include both the new Chinese furniture designed by Hong Wei and the Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture that he himself treasured at home and regarded as a design nutrient. "Witnessing" means looking at the past and the present, looking at the future, and also reflecting on the inner self. In the cover design, Hong Wei incorporated the concept of "yin and yang" into the title font, giving it a sense of time like a flow of water.
△ "Handwriting", published by Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing House, is a book that records the life trivia, study notes, creative inspiration and philosophical understanding of well-known designer Hong Wei. In casual writing, creative graphics and depictions, "Handwriting" cleverly links life with the pages, seemingly disorganized and incoherent text, but it happens to project his views on the everyday, conveying the designer's understanding and attitude towards life and aesthetic orientation.
"The World's Most Beautiful Book": The Long-Planned "Watch"
In Hong Wei's studio, a new piece of "paper" was added: the bronze medal certificate of "the world's most beautiful book" in 2020. This is the 21st award won by the "Most Beautiful Book" from China in the "World's Most Beautiful Book" arena. Hong Wei has been "planning for a long time" for this. As early as six years ago, he began furniture design like a ticket, and he had decided to publish a "most beautiful book" with this content, and his favorite publishing house was the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. Although Hong Wei himself has also made achievements in book binding design, "Sitting And Watching", which was designed by him and written by Zhongshan classical furniture research scholar Ma Shu, was selected as the "Most Beautiful Book in China" in 2012, and the following year, the "Wenxin Feidu" cooperated by the two was awarded the "Most Beautiful Book in China" in 2013.
But unlike the two books mentioned above, "Contemplation: The Philosophy of Inhabitation" is a "collection of works" by Hong Wei himself, "I don't want to make it into a catalogue of works, but I use furniture to talk about my understanding of Chinese culture." "Mr. Hong said he gave the book's binding design to his friend Pan Yanrong." I hope to see something different. Hong Wei said that Pan Yanrong and he just happen to have complementary personalities, the former is thoughtful, and he is casual like a "jerk".
Pan Yanrong previously designed "Gifts from Hongwei" for Hongwei, which won the 2014 "China's Most Beautiful Book" award. The book "Contemplation - The Philosophy of Inhabitation" adheres to Pan Yanrong's consistent sensitivity to paper, and he uses different touches of paper and almost perfect printing technology to show the humanistic character of Hong Wei's works in a calm and simple tone.
△ Poke video appreciation "Contemplation - The Philosophy of Inhabitation"
The design of "Contemplation: The Philosophy of Inhabitation" is based on dark coffee color. The glossy golden titles come into view, creating an aesthetic interest in an oriental context. The paper in the catalog is rough, "two cents a big sheet, cheap as straw paper". The paper printed with the structural drawings of the furniture is smooth and delicate, and it is said to be a kind of advertising paper made in Japan. "Contrasts of great contrasts can produce drama and stimulate people's curiosity." Hong Wei explained. Some pages also boldly adopt the technique of printing black on black paper, black is shiny, like a silhouette, the layers are subtle, and its calm and heavy effect complements the wood color of the furniture.
The design of the whole book gets rid of the general list of pictures, and adopts the method of sub-shot segmentation, showing every detail of ancient furniture and the joints of the process characteristics. It also deconstructs Hong Wei's chair with vectorized decomposition patterns, contrasting macroscopic and microscopic images. It does not arrange the old objects and new designs collected by Hong Wei in order, but mixes the old furniture with three small inserts in three parts, and just divides the book into four parts, breaking the rhythm of reading, allowing readers to think carefully, and then strengthening the theme of "contemplation".
△ "Contemplation - The Philosophy of Inhabitation" produces drama with the contrast of paper, size and color, and stimulates people's "contemplation".
Handwriting: the real daily life of the designer
The choreography similar to "stopping for a moment" was also applied by Hong Wei in his own book "Handwriting", but it was another style of black humor, reflecting Hong Wei's ridicule of the money society. He copied the handwritten IOUs of the old days and recorded all the money owed to him by his friends and family. This "account" began when his daughter owed him fifty cents and continued to be written until his lover owed him ten thousand years. These debts exist in real terms as well as absurd expressions. Hong Wei presented these IOUs in white and black paper, interspersed in the handwriting of white paper and black characters, as a partition. "Everybody flipped through it, and suddenly it felt a little funny." He added two lines to the spine, "Mentioning a book like this is like you bringing back a piece of meat from a wet market." This echoes the everyday sense of content.
△ Poke video to appreciate "Handwriting"
"Handwriting" is selected from Hong Wei's notes over the years and is a veritable copy of the designer's handwriting. Hong Wei originally wanted to call it, My nickname is Hong, and this book is my running account. Although, at the request of publication, the current title has become mild, on the back cover of the cover, the word is still faintly recognizable, and it is difficult to hide the naughty mentality of. During zhuhai international design week in early December this year, the book was also the most read work in Hong Wei's solo exhibition area. "Maybe everyone has a voyeuristic desire." Hong Wei laughed and said that the idea of fun was born in daily life, but it was often fleeting, and he had the habit of "remembering by hand". These notes are his real daily life, and he even accidentally leaked his Apple phone ID password, "fortunately, it was found in time, and I quickly deleted it before publication." Recently, Hong Wei began to record his own inspiration with a brush on A4 paper, "Maybe it's because I'm older, I want to return to the essence of everyday Chinese writing." ”
△ In the middle of Zhuhai International Design Week in early December this year, Hong Wei's "Handwriting" attracted people to stop and read carefully.
Artistic concept: deconstructing and interpreting truth, goodness and beauty
Hong Wei in "Handwriting" jumps in his thinking and is creative. He said in a note that "Mustard Garden Notation" is like a dictionary, including "partial partial heads" that depict everything in the world, and you don't have to go outside to sketch, as long as you keep these in mind, you can combine the world in your heart. "This is the true essence of Chinese painting, and it is also a core part of the Chinese art tradition." In this regard, Hong Wei further explained to reporters: "In my opinion, the essence of Chinese art is the modular composition, it has its own routines, but the creation lies in how you use the routines. Chinese art begins with 'plagiarism', such as learning calligraphy to post, you first have to imitate, but blindly imitate, you fall into the trap of others. Finally, you have to go deep into life, and what you draw is definitely not an object, but the imagination of the mind. ”
△ Hong Wei designed the Chinese 24 solar terms theme poster in a deconstructive and recombinant manner.
Starting from font design, Hong Wei crossed over to the fields of furniture design, ceramic cultural creation, and new literati calligraphy, which seemed to be boundless, but in fact, he was playing with the disassembly of structure. "Just like Chinese characters, which are caused by simple partial radicals, there are ever-changing combinations, and the expression of art always lies in a certain feeling." Hong Wei prefers black, white and gray tones, likes "clumsy" handwriting, "like a child, with clean and clear eyes, people can't help but want to hug." I think this style is invincible because it embodies the human appeal of truth, goodness and beauty. ”
△ During the epidemic period, Hong Wei designed a rice barn with "no panic with grain" to carry people's yearning for a better life.
△ Designer Hong Wei exhibited his calligraphy and ceramic cultural and creative products at this year's Zhuhai International Design Week, hoping to integrate design into life.
In the seat design included in "Contemplation: The Philosophy of Inhabitation", Hong Wei regards "Xi" as "the treasure of the town hall". When this work was exhibited at Zhuhai International Design Week, it also caused the audience to exclaim: "How can such an ass-tied chair sit?" Only to see 327 wooden strips crisscrossed in the form of Luban locks, forming a "Xi" character. Hee is light. Hong Wei said that this chair is a tribute to the light by design and craftsmen. Because of the light, for the first time, human beings have a sense of ritual. Many times, the sense of ceremony doesn't mean much. This chair can only be viewed from a distance, and cannot sit and play. But life still requires a sense of ritual. "Here, I elevate the artifact to a spiritual yearning." Hong Wei said that the "Xi" chair is like a warning that we cannot have all the material things we want. "Sometimes, watching is more enjoyable than having."
△ The "Xi" chair is a tribute to the light by design and craftsmen, and it is also Hong Wei's warning to himself: some things can be viewed from a distance and do not need to be possessed.
△ Designer Hong Wei, a 49-year-old naughty boy.
The essence of Chinese art is modular composition, it has its own routines, but the creation lies in how you use the routines.
- Hong Wei
◆ New Media Center of Zhongshan Daily Newspaper Group
◆ Column coordinator: Mido
◆ Text +/ Liao Wei
◆ Figure +6/ Sun Junjun
◆ Video Producer: Liu Jianman
◆ Editor: Mido
◆ Second instance: Zhang Peng
◆ Third trial: Wei Lijun
◆ Material source: Zhongshan Daily